Team Yukon returned home from the 2018 Brier curling championships this week with experience and a couple of wins under their belt.

Under the new format implemented this year, this was the first time the Yukon had it’s own representation in the main draw of the national men’s curling tournament.

“It’s hard to put that in to words,” 23-year-old skip Thomas Scoffin said of his first Brier experience. “It was really amazing. It exceeded my expectations for sure. The experience as a whole was like nothing else I’ve ever experienced.”

The team was in tough competition right from the start with an opening game against the wild-card team skipped by Mike McEwen, who came in second in the Olympic qualifying event for Canada in December. They dropped a close opening game 5-3 before taking on skip Brad Gushue and Team Canada.

“Gushue didn’t even really seem human against us to be honest,” Scoffin said. “We payed a decent game, we didn’t play our absolute best, but they just didn’t miss.”

This was the first time the Yukon team has played against the Gushue lineup and Scoffin said it was a great opportunity to play against the best and see their skill on the ice.

“We had a lot of fun in that game and it was actually just cool to experience how automatic they were that week and you could tell right from the opening weekend that they were going to be ready to win the thing so it was pretty cool to play against them,” Scoffin said.

Canada won the game 8-3 in eight ends and went on to win their second straight Brier title.

With an 0-3 start, Yukon was still looking for their first Brier win headed into an evening draw against British Columbia.

With two consecutive steals of one point in the third and fourth ends, Scoffin’s team was able to open up a 3-1 lead before adding two more in the seventh to lead 5-2. Tasting their first victory, the team continued their stealing ways taking one point in the ninth and two in the 10th end to win 8-2 against B.C. and skip Sean Geall.

“We played well all game and it was our best team game for sure of the week. They were struggling a little bit and we really took advantage of some opportunities that came up,” Scoffin said of the win in front of a packed and loud crowd in Regina. “To get that win we were on Cloud 9 it was an amazing feeling. It was just awesome to have everybody behind us and cheering us on.”

But the first win for the team didn’t come without some adversity. In the middle of the game, Scoffin’s father Wade – the only Yukon member with prior Brier experience – suffered a foot injury and the team’s fifth Clint Ireland took his place in the seventh end to finish off the game.

Wade was able to return for the remainder of the tournament but Scoffin said they shuffled the lineup around, moving him to the lead position and Steve Fecteau taking his place at second.

The team had another close one against Brendan Bottcher and Alberta, who Scoffin and third Tom Appelman are very familiar with from training with them while Scoffin was at the University of Alberta.

The Yukon team was down 5-4 in the eighth but looking to score a bundle until Bottcher made a big shot to hold Scoffin to only one point.

“We did play well and we had them on the ropes,” Scoffin said. “Brendan made just a game-saving shot in the eighth end against us. I mean that’s Brendan being Brendan. He made those shots all week and that’s part of the reason why they made it to the final.”

Alberta scored two in the ninth to win 7-5.

Coming out on the losing end of several close games, Scoffin said they were a little disappointed about those outcomes but overall are proud of how they performed.

“We didn’t have our best all week so that was a little bit disappointing. I think we had a couple more wins in us for sure,” he said. “But at the same time we had a great experience and the guys are proud of how we played.”

The team finished pool play with a record of 1-6 and on a head-to-head tiebreaker against Newfoundland and Labrador finished last in the pool. They faced Nunavut in the final placement game winning a close one 7-6 by scoring one in the tenth and final end.