Nunavut junior men's curling team rebounds from lopsided losses, ending 33 game losing streak

Well there's no stopping them now.

On Tuesday night at the Canadian Junior Curling Championships, the women's team from Nunavut ended the territory's combined (both men and women) losing streak at 64 games, scoring Nunavut's first ever victory at the tournament. Less than 24 hours after that, the junior men's team, skipped by 20-year-old Qamaniq (pronounced COM-uh-nick) Siksik, got their maiden victory, scoring a nervous 9-6 decision over Northwest Territories.

“It... It’s... It’s the best," said an obviously happy and relieved Siksik, overcome by the removal of a heavy weight from his shoulders. "I don’t know. I don’t know what to say.”

Siksik had played with the team in 2013 and 2014 and had suffered through six straight losses at this year's event, meaning he'd been a part of 24 of the team's 33 straight defeats. This year's losses include a 23-1 decision to Alberta, an 18-1 decision against Nova Scotia and a 33-1 (yes, 33-1) loss to Manitoba in the opening draw.

On Wednesday afternoon at the Stratford Rotary Complex in Stratford, Ontario, the tide was turned, although it didn't come without the possibility of things slipping away and another loss being lumped on the pile. Cruising to a 9-2 lead after seven ends, Siksik and his teammates gave up three in the eighth, and then a steal of one in the ninth. They would have needed a skip's take out against three counters in the tenth, had The Territories' final stone found the mark and left them lying three. Instead, Siksik didn't need to throw that final rock. "I was kind of getting worried," he said.

As was the case with the women's victory the night before, this was a hugely popular win. When it was over, spectators in Saskatchewan green and Alberta blue rattled cowbells and applauded. Fans from Ontario, Newfoundland & Labrador, British Columbia, all hooted and many of them stood. Heck, even one of the players from the Northwest Territories bent down and plopped a kiss on the back of the head of one of the Nunavut players.

“It can only go up from here,” said Siksik, who began to curl just "three or four years ago."

A quietly charming young man with an obviously big heart, Siksik missed last year's tournament (and took time off from his job as a special needs teaching assistant) because he'd opted to spend three months in Peru helping the poor. “I made ecological stoves for the less fortunate, the people who live in the Andes Mountains. It was pretty cool.”

Siksik and his teammates - Tyson and Javen Komaksiutiksak as well as Ryan Aggark had congratulated their female counterparts on Tuesday night, even though they were stepping off the ice after being shut out by Newfoundland & Labrador, 14 - nothing. The ladies returned the love on Wednesday, whooping it up and slapping the boards with their hands with every successful shot. Siksik thinks they'll all feel lots of that when they return home to Nunavut.

“Oh, man. I think a lot of people are going to be proud of us," he said. "I think we’re gonna go home to, I don’t know... just the best thing ever. I can’t explain it. I just can’t talk right now,” he said, laughing.

Lack of competition and lack of adequate coaching infrastructure are dogging the sport in Nunavut in these early days of curling's growth there. On top of that, the two-sheeter Siksik and his mates play in, the Qavik Curling Club in Rankin Inlet, is a far cry from the bright lights and lightning fast ice at the Canadian Championships, despite the best of intentions.

“Our club isn’t the greatest," said Siksik, adding that everyone does their best to make a go of it. “They’re not really ice makers," he says of the staff. "They work at the hockey rink. Usually me and my boys, we try to fix it up. It’s dirty, dirty ice. Hard to play on, you know?”

Hard to step up into the world of top level competitive curling when there is substandard ice, less available coaching and a dearth of competitive teams against which you can improve.

For Siksik and his team from Nunavut, it must make this first victory all the sweeter.

It's also likely why fans from every other territory and province felt moved to stand and cheer a mid-week win for a 1 and 6 team.

Good curling indeed.