It was a successful Boston Pizza Cup (Alberta Curling Provincials) for Airdronian Aaron Sluchinski as he proved he belongs in the ranks of some of Canada's top curling teams like Brendan Bottcher and Kevin Koe.

At the beginning of the tournament, things started off slower for Sluchinski's rink, but they ended up catching their stride before losing to the champions of the tournament and now Team Alberta at the Tim Hortons Brier, Kevin Koe.

Sluchinski's team contains Jeremy Harty at third, Kerr Drummond at second, Dylan Webster as the lead and of course Sluchinski as skip.

"We were playing really well. We've been having a really good season and we started winning and seeing ourselves up against Koe in the semis; we thought we had a really good chance to come away with a win, but then we just didn't put up our best efforts. If you don't do that against those top teams, you don't really have a chance at winning."

Sluchinski is disappointed in the loss but is happy to see his rink make it as far as they did.

"Koe's team struggled in the first three to four ends, we really should have pounced on them there. But we had a couple of missed opportunities, where we could have put a lot of pressure on them and [we] let them off the hook."

Sluchinski lost the semi-final 6-2.

When asked about having his name mentioned alongside Kevin Koe and Brendan Bottcher, Sluchinski explained it's really exhilarating.

"It feels good to be up there with them, but we're still not quite there yet."

Sluchinski's team started off as number 57 in the men's world rankings and has climbed all the way up to the 20th spot. He explained they plan to keep playing as a team and keep working together to get better and better and keep playing those big-name teams.

When asked about who he really wants to play, he mentioned he would really like to take on the number one team in the world, Niklas Edin of Sweden.

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