The championship game of the Henderson Metal Fall Classic has always seemed to find a way to generate a storyline.
The inaugural event saw Matt Dunstone’s team, featuring Sault product Ryan Harnden, beat an Italian team skipped by Joel Retornaz in 2023.
Dunstone captured back-to-back titles with an extra-end win over Marco Hoesli of Switzerland last year in the final.
On Sunday afternoon, it was a Minnesota-based team skipped by Daniel Casper that found its way to the final, where they would face Retornaz for the title.
Skip Daniel Casper wasn’t in the Sault for the event, though, and his team was skipped by Rich Ruohonen.
Casper is currently in Minnesota competing with John Shuster’s American team at the Pan Continental Curling Championship, which advanced to the final in that event, where they were to face Sault Ste. Marie’s Brad Jacobs.
With Ruohonen at the helm, the Casper rink held on to beat Retornaz 8-5 Sunday at the YNCU Curling Centre to capture the tournament title.
Ruohonen isn’t a stranger to the team, having been a part of it since October 2024 and filling in multiple times last season while Casper was out of the lineup due to medical issues.
“Danny’s doing better now this year, so I’ve just been along for the ride this year,” Ruohonen said. “I tell him my job is to sit and look pretty behind the glass. I’ve only played about five games this year, but I’ve been at every event.”
“I’m just here to try to help the best I can, and this was a good weekend for me because I got to play and we won it. Now Danny might be riding the pine, we’re going to have to check,” Ruohonen joked.
Sunday’s title game was one in which Ruohonen said his team overcame some struggles, including surrendering three points in the sixth end to fall behind before a strong seventh end put them in position to make life difficult for Retornaz in the eighth end.
“We gave up that big three in six and then played a great seven and made everything we needed to make, and they missed a couple,” Ruohonen said. “(The sixth) was a big swing, obviously, and then we just said we’re going to go for it. You can’t play not to lose.”
“It was a rollercoaster, emotional game,” Ruohonen added.
The game ultimately came down to a final shot by Retornaz in the eighth end, with the Italian skip going for two and the win.
“Once we rolled a little too far (on Team Casper’s final shot), I knew that was the shot he was going to play, and it does run straight there,” Ruohonen said. “As the game goes on, it gets a little straighter in that spot where he was just off on either side.”
As tough as the shot was, Ruohonen said, “he had to go for the win.”
“Just missed it by an inch or two,” he added.
The Casper rink advanced to the final thanks to a 6-1 win over Evan Van Amsterdam in semifinal play earlier Sunday.
The other semifinal game on Sunday morning saw Retornaz advance with a 6-3 win over John Epping’s Sudbury-based rink.
For Retornaz, the tournament has been a successful one as the Italian rink finished second in the inaugural event in 2023 and third place last year.