 Back at the skip position for the first time since his junior career, Felix Asselin is heading to his fourth Canadian men's curling championship as Team Quebec (Photo: Curling Quebec). By: Cameron Sallaj After cancellations in both 2021 and 2022, the Quebec Tankard returned this year at the Centre Sportif Mistouk d'Alma in Alma from January 10 to 15. At the end of the week, only two rinks, Felix Asselin and Vincent Roberge, were still in contention. Team Asselin, consisting of Felix Asselin, Martin Crete, Emilie Asselin, and Jean-Francois Trepanier qualified for the playoffs in Alma through the A-side with a perfect 4-0 record. Their opposition, Team Vincent Roberge, qualified through the B-side after falling 7-1 to the Asselin rink in the A final. In the 1 vs. 2 game, Team Roberge got the better of Team Asselin, stealing singles in the ninth and tenth ends to close out a narrow 6-4 victory. This dropped the Asselin rink into the semifinal where they were able to knock off Team Robert Desjardins 9-5 to qualify for the provincial final. In the final game, Team Asselin, from the combined rinks of Glenmore, Belvedere, Valleyfield, and Etchemin, got off to a fast start as they were able to swipe single point steals in ends one and two. Team Roberge responded with three in the third before Team Asselin matched the score with three of their own in the fourth to lead 5-3. The Roberge rink of Vincent Roberge, Jean-Michel Arsenault, Jesse Mullen, and Julien Tremblay elected to blank the fifth end and take hammer into the second half of the game, trailing by two points. In the sixth end, the Roberge rink from Etchemin and Victoria scored their second three ender of the game to take the lead once again by a tight 6-5 margin. The seventh end proved to be the turning point in the championship game. After Vincent Roberge left his final rock partially exposed behind a center guard, Felix Asselin executed a perfect double takeout to count five points for his rink and put them in the lead 10-6. In the eighth, Team Asselin stole another two points to take a six-point lead at which point Team Roberge conceded. The 2023 Tim Hortons Brier will be Asselin's third consecutive and fourth overall trip to the national men's curling championship. For his previous three appearances, he, along with lead Jean-Francois Trepanier were members of the Michael Fournier rink. Martin Crete joined the team in 2020 and made two Brier appearances with the rink. Emilie Asselin, Felix's brother, is a new addition to the team as a result of Fournier's departure. Asselin returned to skipping for the 2022-23 season for the first time since his junior career which included skipping Quebec at four Canadian Junior Curling Championships. So far this season, his team has found success in every event they played in, including a title victory at the Invitational Valleyfield and two final appearances at the Stu Sells Brantford NISSAN Classic and the Challenge de Curling Desjardins. His team also competed in the HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 2 event where they reached the semifinals. The 2023 national championship will be held from March 3 to 12 at the Budweiser Gardens in London, Ontario. There will be eighteen teams in the field all competing for the national title. The winners will represent Canada on home soil at the 2023 World Men's Curling Championship at TD Place Arena in Ottawa, Ontario from April 1 to 9. Team Asselin finished 4-0 through the sixteen-team qualifying round of the 2023 Tankard. In their opening two games, they won 11-3 over both Team Francis Godin (Riviere-du-Loup, QC) and Team Zackary Wise (Montreal, QC). They then beat Team Robert Desjardins (Quebec, Quebec) 8-4 before defeating Team Vincent Roberge (Levis, QC) 7-1 in the A Event final. Watch the replay of the Quebec Tankard final between Roberge and Asselin: |
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