Uhryn's national dream falls in extra ends

The dream of a berth to the Scott Tournament of Hearts national championship for Elaine Uhryn came to a sudden end.

After Uhryn and her team from the Soo Curlers Association struggled at the beginning of the Ontario Scott Tournament of Hearts Championships at the Copper Cliff Curling Club, the team rallied to win five of the next seven games to finish third overall and gain entry into the page playoff system.

Following a page playoff win over JoAnn Rizzo, Uhryn, with Kelly McLelland, Sherri Maguire and Karen Bonenfant, defeated Jenn Hanna in the semi-final on Saturday night to earn a spot in Sunday's final with Sherry Middaugh.

After Middaugh took a 1-0 lead in the third end of the final, Uhryn responded with two points in the fourth end. Middaugh regained the lead with a single point in the sixth end before stealing another point in the seventh.

Uhryn tied the score at 3-3 with a point in the eighth end with the hammer. After the teams blanked the ninth and tenth ends, the stage was set for a sudden death playoff.

Middaugh, the skip of one of the country's top women's teams and the wife of top men's curler Wayne Middaugh, took a single point in the 11th end to claim the provincial title and earn a ticket to the national championships February 21-29 in Red Deer, Alberta.

While the disappointment of losing a provincial final is natural, the team can use the experience in future runs at the Ontario championship, which is one of curling's toughest titles to win. The young team has plenty of time to develop and likely has not yet seen their best days pass.

Overall, Uhryn compiled a 7-4 record after finishing the round robin with a 5-4 record.

In earlier playoff action, Uhryn took on the Brant Curling Club's JoAnn Rizzo in the third versus fourth place game on Saturday afternoon. With a pair of three-point ends in the fifth and seventh along with a deuce in the ninth, Uhryn defeated Rizzo 10-6 to advance into Saturday's night's semi-final.

In the semi-final against Ottawa's Jenn Hanna, who fell to Middaugh 10-4 in the other page playoff game, Uhryn took a pair of points in each of the fourth and eighth ends to build a 6-3 lead. But Hanna, who defeated Uhryn 6-5 in the round robin, took three points in the ninth end to tie the score at 6-6.

In the tenth end, Uhryn used the hammer to her advantage and took a point to land herself in Sunday's final.