Cochrane curler Julianna MacKenzie is heading to the Canada Winter Games to represent Alberta as part of Team Bakos after a close final against Team Cinnamon, of Cochrane.

The Bakos team, based out of the Crestwood Curling Club in Edmonton, and Team Cinnamon each had 2-1 records coming out of the round robin in the Nov. 10-11 trial between Alberta’s top four young women’s teams.

Team Bakos won the page playoff against Team Cinnamon, 9-2, to place them in the Sunday afternoon final.

Team Cinnamon was relentless in their efforts, though. In a Sunday morning matchup, they beat Team Thangadurai, 5-4, in an extra end to earn another crack at Team Bakos in the final.

The final was close, opening with a blank end and then seeing the team trade points. Bakos stole a point in End 5 and 6 and Cinnamon put up another point in End 7 leaving Bakos coming home with hammer up by one.

Bakos kept a clean end with Cinnamon trying to keep guards up front in order to have a guard to come around into the house. In her last shot, Skip Julia Bakos pulled off a runback from her own guard that peeled out the Cinnamon lone rock on the four foot and won the game, 4-3. It was not an easy shot but Bakos felt confident with the runback as she had just thrown one on her first shot.

Skip Julia Bakos, third Quinn Prodaniuk, Second Alyssa Nedohin, Lead Julianna MacKenzie form the Bakos rink. Coach is Glenna Rubin.

Skip Zoe Cinnamon, Third Justine Hagey, Second Elspeth Cooper and Lead Raelyn Helston form the Cinnamon Rink. Coach is Rob Helston.

In all, there were six Cochrane curlers in the trials. Hannah Airey, who was part of a bronze medal rink in the Canadian U18 women’s championship last spring, was lead for Team Bakker.

The Canada Winter Games are being hosted by Red Deer, Feb. 15 to Mar. 3.