VICTORIA -- Twice in one day they were Jack MacDuff in waiting. Twice they were going to the gallows when the governor called.
Twice the rink, which came here from their coronation as the greatest rink in curling history, looked to be heading home in shame or in blame for becoming the first Canadian team to miss the playoffs at the World Curling Championships since Jack MacDuff's Newfoundland rink in 1976.
Randy Ferbey, Dave Nedohin, Scott Pfeifer and Marcel Rocque walked off the ice alive last night but looking like zombies. There was certainly no sense of euphoria.
"That's the worst I've ever felt winning in my life," said Pfeifer.
The round-robin finished in an unprecented six-way tie for first at 8-3. A complicated formula of games against each other and pre-event closest-to-the pin competition qualified Germany and Scotland for tonight's 1-2 game. In this morning's tiebreakers, Canada plays Finland and Norway plays the U.S. The winners advance to this afternoon's 3-4 game.
SCOTLAND SKIP WITH THE YIPS
There but for the grace of God and a Scotland skip with the yips goeth a late great fab four.
There but for a Canadian expatriate from Orangeville, Ont., who flashed 6,137 fans with his last rock in the 10th end to give Canada an even greater gift, the four-time Brier champs and two-time world champs would have been chumps.
If David Murdoch of Scotland hadn't come up dreadfully short on his first shot and then sent one up the kilt of his vice skip and through the house with a draw to give up a steal of three with his last rock in the 10th end, the Canadian goose would have been cooked.
If Ian Palangio wouldn't have missed a relatively easy double takeout, the Canadian bacon is fried. The Australian last rock-thrower had half a rock to shoot at and sailed it off toward Australia to allow Nedohin the whole house to throw at for three and a win that looked like a loss when Palangio settled into the hack.
Nedohin couldn't watch.
"There was a brief moment there I thought we'd lost the game," he said. "I didn't watch. I stared at my feet. I waited for the crowd reaction. All week we've been behind the eight-ball. It felt really good to get that break and go down to the other end of the ice and make that draw. I just took a deep breath when he missed and didn't even think about it when I went down to make my shot."
Pfeifer watched it horizontally.
"I was laying down on the ice. I'm speechless," he said.
"We're very fortunate we're alive," said Rocque.
"We've given away games like that," said Ferbey, perhaps thinking of last year's Brier and their first world championship in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The Canadians gave up two in the first end against the Scots and had to battle all game to get to the 10th end up one without hammer.
EITHER DEAD OR ALIVE
They knew when Murdoch took his place in the hack that they were going to be either dead or alive.
"I never would have bet against him on that last draw," said Nedohin. "He was on the button all week. But we'll take it."
Murdoch said missing the shot upset him more than losing the game.
"That's what annoyed me the most - more than the actual result," said the Scot.
Canada scored two in the first and two more in the third to lead Hugh Millikin's Australian rink 4-1, and then gave the game away missing shot after shot and giving up steal after steal until they were down 7-5 after nine ends.
"We were up 5-2 and then we were down two going into the last end and couldn't figure out how that happened," said Ferbey.
"I knew about the MacDuff thing," said Millikin, another Canadian ex-pat whose claim to fame was beating Ferbey, Pat Ryan and their wives in the Canadian mixed.
"That was a very makeable shot in the end," he said of Palangio's miss.
"He could see three-quarters of the rock. All he had to do was make half a rock and they're both gone and the game is over."
Ferbey stood there shaking his head when it was over.
"It's been a wacky week," he said. "It's been a crazy week. What do I say. It's curling. It's a sport. Stuff happens."
