Mark Dacey is back on top. After taking a year off from curling, the Mayflower skip couldn’t have scripted a better return to competition, winning the Nova Scotia men’s curling championship — now called the Molson Scotia Cup — yesterday in Chester.
Dacey dominated the field, going a perfect 6-0 before thumping Brookfield’s Ian Fitzner-Leblanc 8-1 in yesterday’s championship game for his fifth Nova Scotia title.
“We had a game plan to be very aggressive early in games and we executed it,” said the 2004 Brier champion, who also won a provincial title in Saskatchewan in 1995.
“Both playoff games, we scored three in the first end,” he said.
“That’s the type of start you dream of, but it didn’t end there. We kept the foot on the gas pedal and everything worked out.”
Dacey, a Saskatoon native who moved to Halifax in 1995, also won titles in 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2006.
Dacey’s mate, Bruce Lohnes, won a record seventh provincial title, breaking Peter MacPhee’s 19-year-old standard. Second Andrew Gibson won his fourth title with Dacey, while lead Kris Granchelli, a newcomer, captured his first.
Chasing history for Lohnes provided motivation, Dacey said.
“We were hungry, and when you have that feeling, you get that adrenaline, that rush of excitement, and you can channel that into good shot-making and good play,” he said.
Dacey advances to the Brier, which is being held from March 7-15 in Calgary.
