Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 37

SPORTS hi D3 EDMONTON JOURNAL 12 MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 2005 PROVINCIAL WOMEN'S CURLING CHAMPIONSHIP Si Jzi Jz3 JV Martin edges Ferbeyin all-Edmonton Open final Rivalry less important than shot at Olympics GEORGE KARRYS CanWest News Service WINNIPEG jr to 4 5f. Saville Centre skip dethrones Kleibrink to earn trip to national Tournament of Hearts JIM MATHESON Journal Curling Writer EDMONTON She's King of the queens. Saville Centre skip Cathy King qualified for her sixth Scott Tournament of Hearts Sunday in Lethbridge with a heart-stopping 5-4 win over defending champion Shannon Kleibrink. King, who won the Canadian women's tide in 1998 and has also placed second twice, didn't have to throw her last rock in the 10th end when Kleibrink's last stone couldn't beat her counter. She could finally relax.

"You're a wreck when you have to throw your last rock to win," said King, who last represented Alberta in 2002 in Brandon. "This is very exciting for us, taking three rookies to Canadians. It tookmel7years to get there, after winning the juniors." By winning Alberta, King also has a shot at an Olympic trials berth which goes to the Canadian Hearts champ unless it's Colleen Jones or Kelly Scott. Both are in the field and have trials berths already, so conceiveably King could finish third and still get the trials spot. But she'd rather not go through the back door.

Alberta may be the toughest road to travel to get to the Canadian women's final, with Kleibrink, Renelle Bryden and Edmonton's Deb Santos all powerhouses. 6 6 You re a wreck when you have to throw your last rock to win. Alberta champion Cathy King "As you get older, you wonder if you can go through it again. But I've got a young team. They've got enthusiasm.

It's also the closest team Fve had. We e-mail each other every day and there's not a day goes by we're not talking to one another on the phone," said King, who competed in her first Canadian championship in 1995, then returned in '97, '98, '99 and again in 2002. King's third Lori Armstead had been skipping her own rink. Second Raylene Rocque had been to provincials with Shannon Orsini. Lead Tracy Bush, who commutes from Red Deer to play with King, lost the '99 Alberta final, playing with Nancy Smith.

"Ifsnice forme, but they're out of their minds," said the veteran King. "I know what they're in for. It's going to be chaos for the next month, getting Saville skip Cathy King hugs third Lori Armstead after defeating Shannon Kleibrink at deninanail-bitersemifinalon Saturday night. IN THE HACK: Kelly Scott, vho won the Canada Cup West at Saville Centre in December, won the B.C. women's playdown.

The other provinces that have declared winners: Jenn Hanna (Ontario), Jennifer Jones (Manitoba), Kerry Koe (YukonNortliwest Territories), Sandy Comeau (New Brunswick), Heather Strong (Newfoundland), Rebecca Jan McPhee (Prince Edward Island), Kay Zinck (Nova Scotia, who won with Jones in '82) and Brenda Nicholls obvious marquee attraction. "Fleury's playing, thaf the only reason I'm here," Cunningham said. "I've never seen him play live. "Of course, he had a lot ofbaggage with him in the last couple of years." Yes, including a violation of the NHL's substance-abuse program that led to his being suspended from the Chicago Blackhawks last season. But Fleury, Odjick and the rest are role models to the kids in Horse Lake First Nation, a reserve about 60 kilometres northwest of Grande Prairie.

Odjick shrugs off suggestions that the Horse Lake team has, in effect, bought an Allan Cup contender. "Theo played in the NHL for 16 years and I played for 13 years and we don't need Horse Lake's money," said Odjick, who plays defence for the Thunder rather than the wing. "The reason we came down is we bought into their program. "They wantto get kids involved inhock-ey and build up their sports programs like softball in the summer. I don't know that any of the Horse Lake youth are not here tonight." Horse Lake can take the series at home on Friday night.

But if the Eagles win on the road to force a Game 5, it will be played in Stony Plain a week from Wednesday. The winner plays the victor of another playdown between Bentley and Innisfail. The prize at the end of the line is a trip to the Allan Cup tournament in Lloyd- s. nv 1 THE CANADIAN PRESS the Alberta curling finals in Lethbridge. (Quebec).

Jones is in as defending champion. Jan Betker, SaniiraSdimirler's former third, and Sherry Anderson are the top-rated Saskatchewan skips in their provincial playdown, which starts this week On the men's side, Pat Ryan didn't qualify for the eight-team B.C. final in Smithers. Bert Gretzinger, Greg McAulay, BrentPierce andBobUrseldid qualify. In Saskatchewan, Pat Simmons won the A event in the southern play-downs and Doug Harcourt the A in the north to make it to the provincials.

jmathesonthejournal.canwest.com Kevin Martin did a number on archrival Randy Ferbey and won his second Grand Slam title of the season just days before annual run at the Alberta provincials. Martin made a stunning takeout for three in the seventh end and stole the 10th end for a thrilling 8-7 win and the $30,000 top prize at the Canadian Open of Curling at the MTS Centre. The all-Edmonton battle was their third of the season. Martin beat Ferbey in the final of the McCain Super-spiel West in nearby Portage La Prairie but lost to Ferbey in the semifinal of Meat Shops Skins in December. "Our rivalry is great," said Martin.

"But this game was so important for us, for the points to go to the Olympic trials, so the rivalry kinda had to take a back seat." Martin was down 5-3 in the seventh endandthrewabulletoffastone near the sideboards, removing a Ferbey stone on the button to score three. Ferbey responded witha deuce and after a single in the ninth, Martin set up the steal and was rewarded with a bare miss by Ferbey third Dave Nedohin. "We lost byaquarter-inch," said Ferbey, whose squad won $18,000. "I don't care who it is against, we lost the final and we don't like losing finals." Martin's payday took his annual World Curling Tour earnings to $115,250. Ferbey sits in second place at $97,080.

Both squads won their semifinals by identical 7-6 scores. Ferbey defeated Calgary's John Morris while Martin shocked Glenn Howard of Coldwater, by stealing four points over the final three ends. "Kudos to Kevin," said Howard, who nowneeds to represent Ontario at the Brier to have a realistic shot of catching Martin for a key berth in December's Olympic trials in Halifax. "They made a lot of shots the last four ends. We didn't play badly either, but they just kept coming after us." Morris was upset by a piece of debris that affected his final shot of his semifinal, which would have forced an extra end.

"That's typically what happens when we play Ferbey," said Morris. "Any suggestions?" Nedohin described his team's career 11-1 record against Morris as "getting silly." "There's no rationale to beating a team of that quality so many times," said Nedohin. "You know it's coming to an end, and I just hope it's not in two weeks (at the Alberta provincial) Martin failed to qualify for the provincial shootout, which leaves Ferbey with a golden opportunity to appear in his fifth Brier, on home ice at Edmonton's Rexall Place. the league," Schulte said. "I think the league is really coming on, these are guys who used to be pros or junior players, college players, even midget players.

But they still have heart and they play to win." So does Fleury, but with more than 1,000 NHL career points, includingmore than 450 goals, he brings rather more to the party than the others. It has been decades since senior hockey hadadraw-ing card like this. jmackinnonthejoumal.canwest.com SENIOR HOCKEY: ALLAN CUP PLAYOFFS A Fleury of energy Ever the instigator, Theo is still yippin, yappin and stirring up the crowd i Mil' 1W1P i -1 -li; everything ready." The Canadians will be held in St. John's, Feb. 19-27.

Not only does King's team have a new look, she also decided to bring in a sports psychologist. "I had one in '98 and it worked, so we got one last July, Fahreen Rayani. We talked on speaker phone from Lethbridge. It's somethingyou can use," said King. Kleibrink finished the roundrobin with a 6-1 record to get a bye into the final.

King was tied with Calgary's Bryden at 5-2 after the round robin and beat Bry- to play in front of a hostile crowd." One hostile player, chap named Rob Hayne, got into a brief, mostly verbal late-game dispute with Fleury that resulted in misconducts for both. Fleuiys Horse Lake teammates include ex-NHL tough guys Gino Odjick and Sasha Lakovic and it's no surprise when opponents make him or the entire Thunder team targets. Which is no problem for the still-combative Fleury. "I want guys to not take it easy and play as hard as they can against me," Fleury said. "I love to compete and it doesn't matter if it's the NHL or in Europe or the Allan Cup.

Nothing's going to change my game. Tm going to play hard against you and I expect you to play just as hard against me." But this is senior hockey, where the pace, like one of those antique old wind-up gramophones, starts swiftly enough but slowly and surely grinds down to a walk by the third period. Not that the fans minded. Brian Cunningham, who raises bison on his ranch near Pigeon Lake, showed up for the stony plain The Allan Cup is a championship with a great past so it's appropriate that Theo Fleury is injecting new energy into Canadian senior hockey. He certainly did that on Sunday night at Stony Plain's Centennial Arena.

They said they sold 1,600 tickets at $5 a pop, but it was standing room only in the old barn, with fans lining the boards three and four deep in the corners for the Allan Cup quarter-final playdown between Fleury's Horse Lake Thunder and the Stony Plain Eagles. To the untrained eye, it appeared the attendance was pushing 2,000 and it's doubtful any of them had a bad time. And that includes Fleury, who was playing the role of visiting villain, just like always. He carried a noticeable paunch under his black Thunder jersey, but otherwise was unmistakable. He yipped at the referees, yapped at opponents, he agitated, he won faceoffs, he created offensively, he made things happen.

At game's end, his scoring line read: one assist, two minor penalties and a 10-minute miscon- iduct. After enduring two appeals to Hockey Alberta to clear the path for the 16-sea-son NHLer to play senior hockey, was Fleury having fun finally playing competitive hockey again? "Does it look like it?" the 36-year-old Fleury said, after the Thunder defeated Stony Plain 6-2 to take a 2-1 lead in games in the best-of-five series. "Absolutely. It's always fun to win and it's fun WttMttttMMiMNMiMIIMMIillMdlawHIMrt RICK MacWILLIAM, THE JOURNAL Theo Fleury, left, of the Horse Lake Thunder skates next to Craig Kibblewhite of the Stony Plain Eagles during Sunday's senior hockey action at Centennial minster from April 19-24 for the Canadian senior hockey championship. The Allan Cup has been contested since 1908 and for many years the champion represented Canada at the World Championships and the Olympics.

Eagles forward Paxton Schulte, briefly a teammate of Fleury's with the Calgary Flames in the late 1990s, said his teammates may have been a tad distracted by the Fleury hoopla. "Theo's definitely a superstar, but I think the exposure helps the team and.