One year ago, Team Galusha got the chance to play in the inaugural PointsBet Invitational event, a new big-money spiel hosted by Curling Canada.
For the second year running, there is some Yellowknife representation and this time, it’s on the men’s side.
The 2023 edition of the PointsBet Invitational kicked off in Oakville, Ont., on Wednesday with 16 men’s and 16 women’s teams doing battle in a single-elimination bonspiel with a very tidy prize up for grabs — the champions on each side will pocket $50,000. Among those in the mix on the men’s side was Team Tao out of the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton.
Why Team Tao? That’s because Yellowknife’s Adam Naugler plays lead on the foursome skipped by Johnson Tao. The curling squad was in action on opening night against Manitoba’s Reid Carruthers. As an added bonus, it was the featured game on TSN for its evening broadcast and they got to play beside Yellowknife’s Kevin Koe and his Alberta rink. Koe lost his opening round contest to Saskatchewan’s Rylan Kleiter, 10-6.
It didn’t go the way Tao and his crew wanted as they fell by a score of 10-3, meaning they will watch the remainder of the event.
“Our game plan going in was to play conservatively and wait for our opportunities,” said Naugler following the game. “We knew we were going to have to wait for our chances and play safe in the first half of the game, then put on pressure near the end.”
Carruthers started with the hammer and scored two in the first end to go out in front. Carruthers would then steal three in the second and another one in the third to build a 6-0 lead and put the competition behind the eight-ball early.
But Naugler said there was neither panic nor frustration in that situation.
“This was our first time playing a team like that and we knew it would be a new experience for us,” he said. “We knew it was going to be tough all the way.”
After a blank in the fourth, Carruthers stole another to take a 7-0 lead into the mid-game break. Tao would finally break the goose-egg in the sixth as he scored a single. Carruthers came back with three in the seventh before Tao scored a deuce in the eighth, which was enough to shake hands and give Carruthers the win.
Even though they played just one game, the Tao foursome still earned $3,000 for their efforts and even though they’re students at the University of Alberta, they get to pocket the money and retain their status as scholastic players.
The foursome qualified for this event by virtue of winning the national junior men’s title earlier this year. Naugler said they were excited when they found out about the invitation to the PointsBet Invitational.
“We kind of knew early on that we would get to play in this because the junior winners last year got to play in it,” he said. “It was lots of fun and it’s not every day you get to play one of the best teams in the world on arena ice. It was great competition and a really good building event for us before we go to the World Juniors.”
Yes, Team Tao will be wearing the maple leaf in December when the World Junior-B Curling Championships take place in Lohja, Finland. If you’re wondering why Canada is in the B division, that’s because the country was relegated from the A division due to Canada’s representatives finishing outside the top six in the 2023 event.
Naugler won’t be the first curler born in the NWT to play at the international level. That honour goes to his mom, Tara Naugler, who played with Nova Scotia at the 1997 World Junior Curling Championships and won a bronze medal with Canada.
Naugler and his teammates will have to finish in the top three to get back to the A division, which will also happen in Lohja in February 2024.
“If we get out of the B division, hopefully we’ll get a better result than last time,” said Naugler.