TRURO - Peter Burgess desperately needed and win and he got it.
Burgess and his Truro Curling club foursome of mate Craig Burgess, second Jared Bent and lead Todd Burgess, kept his slim playoff hopes alive Thursday with a crucial 6-4 victory over Mayflower's Mark Dacey at the Molson Coors Tankard provincial men's curling championship at Truro Curling Club.
The result lifted Burgess to 2-3 as he enters play today against CFB Halifax's Alan O'Leary (3-2) at 2 p.m.
"Anytime you beat Mark Dacey it's a pretty good day," Burgess said. "It felt good."
The skip said he felt his team played a much better game than it had in the afternoon draw, which saw it fall 7-2 to Lakeshore's Paul Flemming. Burgess recorded his first victory of the tournament in the morning draw with an 8-3 win over Mayflower's Chad Stevens.
"We played pretty well," Burgess said of the night draw. "Made some key shots at the right times. We had control over most ends which was good."
In other action Thursday night defending champion Jamie Murphy, of Lakeshore, defeated O'Leary 7-4 while Flemming defeated Mayflower's Ian Juurlink 8-1. Mayflower's Chad Stevens nipped clubmate Shea Steele 6-5.
Burgess scored a pair of points in the fifth end to take a 3-1 lead before Dacey responded with a single in the sixth. But Burgess sank his teeth in with singles in the seventh and eighth for a 5-2 cushion.
But five-time Tankard champion Dacey wouldn't go away and made the 200 in attendance sweat by scoring a pair on the ninth to pull to within one. But that's as close as he would get and Burgess used the hammer in the 10th to draw to the button, a shot he missed Wednesday with a win over Ian Juurlink on the line, to score a single and seal the deal.
"We were pretty relaxed out there and we had better weight control," Burgess said. "I think we're getting an understanding of the rocks and ice better."
The foursome will be looking to keep that momentum going today as the round-robin wraps up. With three losses already on his record, Burgess Knows he can ill afford another setback.
"We just have to stay relaxed and play like we did (last) night and if we play like we did (last) night, we're going to have a good shot at both games (today). We need to win those."
