It was a semi-final finish for Airdrie curler Aaron Sluchinski and his teammate at the 2023 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championships in Sudbury, Ontario March 20-26. 

Aaron Sluchinski (Airdrie) and Brittany Tran (Calgary) were one of the final mixed doubles teams remaining in the tournament before losing in the semi-final to Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman.

According to Sluchinski getting into the tournament, they were pretty lucky.

"Brittany and I actually ended up getting the last spot at Nationals based on points over the last couple of years. We actually only got it because the Nunavut team had a medical emergency a week before the events."

This was the first mixed doubles tournament the four-year team played together, with Tran making the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Sluchinski played in the Provincial Curling Championship with his wife as Tran was unable to make it. 

Heading into the nationals event, the team was ranked 20 out of 32 teams.

"We started really strong against the top seat in our pool, Laura Walker and Kirk Meyers. We had a really good game against them and had a shot to win and start the event off with a bang, but just missed and lost our first one. We rebounded with a win, but then lost again, so we knew our backs were up against the wall. We were able to rattle off four wins in a row and snuck into the playoffs." 

 Photo credit to Curling Canada/Duncan Bell Photo credit to Curling Canada/Duncan Bell

Heading into the playoffs, for the Airdrie/Calgary team to make it to the semi-final, they had to beat the two teams they lost to in pool play. 

"We felt like we played good enough to beat Walker and Meyers the first time and didn't quite do it. Then the other one was our only real blip on the schedule, against the Quebec team, they throttled us in the first one. So, it was nice to be able to return the favour in the playoffs."

Unfortunately, the quest to win the Canadian Championship came up just short with the 7-6 loss to Gallant and Peterman in the semi-final.

Gallant and Peterman lost to Jennifer Jones and Brent Laing in the final.

 Tran and Sluchinski plan on sticking together as a team for the next mixed doubles curling season.

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