It wasn’t the finish they had hoped for, but Team Drews are taking the positives from their semi-final finish at last weekend’s Minnesota Region USA Curling Club Playdowns in Bemidji.
Team Drews, skipped by former Eriksdale and Lundar native and now Saint Paul, MN local Nick Drews, dominated the tournament early on with a perfect 5-0 record in pool play.
Their winning aspirations suddenly stopped as they were bowed out in the semi-finals by Team Polo, 7-1.
Drews took ownership of the loss, saying he made a ‘bad shot’ when he missed a steal of four in the second end.
Team Polo, which includes former United States Olympic gold medalist Joe Polo, then capitalized on the missed shot and went on to victory to bow out Team Drews.
“I made a bad shot, and we went down early fast,” said Drews following the tournament on Monday. “I quite honestly thought we were the better team there, and we just had a bad game in the semi-finals, and you can’t have a bad game against a team having a good game.”
Despite the loss, Drews said they are staying positive after what was still a dominant tournament, despite the semi-final blunder.
With a couple of bigger tournaments still left on their regular season schedule, they will need that positive mindset because the competition only gets more meaningful now.
They have the Saint Paul Club Championship coming up in a few weeks, the Twin Cities Club Championship in a couple of months, and the Last Chance Bonspiel at the end of the season, which will offer a chance to win big prize money if they can capture a first-place finish.
“We’re still a good team, and we were able to put together some dominant wins and some that were just good enough, but we still like playing together,” said Drews.
“We’ve had pretty good success in that (Last Chance Bonspiel), so I expect that to be our last bonspiel of the year.”
Team Shuster, skipped by former United States Olympic gold medalist John Shuster, will stand in their way at the Last Chance Bonspiel.
Team Drews and Team Shuster have battled in the past, and the Last Chance Bonspiel will likely be another chapter in their exciting tournament rivalry.
Drews said he is also excited to watch his brother Tyler Drews playing third for Team Grassie at the 2025 Viterra Championship later this week.
That tournament runs from Feb. 4-9 at Stride Place in Portage la Prairie.
