Alberta caps perfect run to win Brier

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This article was published 09/03/2019 (2020 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Just about everything about the Tim Hortons Brier in Brandon says Alberta is the king of Canadian men’s curling.

Kevin Koe won an all-Alberta battle 4-3 over Wild Card’s Brendan Bottcher to claim his fourth Brier title on Sunday and the province’s 28th Canadian men’s curling championship, breaking a tie with Manitoba.

As he did on a handful of occasions during the week, Koe finished it in the most dramatic of fashions. In front of a dead silent crowd of 4,234 at Westoba Place, he delivered a takeout that rolled just far enough to bump a second Bottcher stone far enough for a game-winning deuce.

Was it Koe’s favourite of his four?

“They’re hard to compare,” he said. “…J ust the first-year team and dramatic fashion like that. I didn’t know if we’d made it. I was waiting for the whole place to jump around. It was great sweeping. They went the whole way on that. I don’t know if any other sweepers make that shot.”

“If you’re going to make it, sure. To win like that, only gives our team confidence going forward if we’re in close games,” continued Koe, who was named the Brier’s MVP. “We played a great game, but Brendan never goes away. We had him in trouble and there’s just so many shots that had to be perfect and he was. It’s not really a surprise, but he’s just a hell of a curler and we’re fortunate to come out on top.”

Koe grinded through the preliminary round and championship pool with a perfect record and made quick work of Brad Jacobs and Northern Ontario, 9-4 in the 1-vs.-2 Page playoff game on Saturday to reach his sixth final in seven Brier appearances.

Joining Alberta skips Kevin Martin (2008, 2009), Randy Ferbey (2003) and Pat Ryan (1988) as the only undefeated teams in the Brier playoff era wasn’t easy, however, as Koe, B.J. Neufeld, Colton Flasch and Ben Hebert went the distance in six of their 11 preliminary games. The 44-year-old Koe had to make a handful of game-winning shots, including a massive takeout for three against Bottcher in their championship pool game.

It’s also Hebert’s fourth Brier. For Neufeld and Flasch, its their first. Neufeld etches his name on the Tankard alongside his father, Chris Neufeld, who won in 1992 in Regina with the late Vic Peters.

“It’s unbeliveable. I’m stilll pretty much in shock,” Neufeld said. “He was my inspiration to get in this game. He drives me to be as good as I can be as a person and as an athlete, and its pretty special.”

To win it in his home province?

“Pretty cool,” Neufeld said. “Even in the intros, I felt like the crowd was really behind me, personally. It’s really special.”

The game itself rivalled the 16-point Super Bowl as a low-scoring affair. In fact, the lowest scoring Brier final was 1989, when Ryan defeated Rick Folk of British Columbia 3-2. That game included six blank ends, without a free-guard zone: This one had five with the five-rock rule.

After blanking the first end, Koe faced two Bottcher stones partially buried on the button and nearly removed both but settled for a single in the second.

Koe made a long double to clear the house, and Bottcher threw his last rock through for a blank to keep it 1-0.

In the fourth, Koe was perfect on a flop to lie two behind a centre guard, and Bottcher ran the guard by on his runback-double attempt.

Koe protected his two counters with a biter in the top of the 12-foot, and Bottcher nearly made an in-off hit for one. He got enough of one Koe stone to only concede a single.

Koe split the house in the fifth, but Bottcher’s freeze attempt was good enough that Koe was unable to remove Bottcher’s rock without spilling his own and Bottcher blanked to keep the hammer down 2-0 at the break.

Bottcher was unable to generate a deuce in the next two ends, and had to blank.

Desperate to mix it up in the eighth, Bottcher allowed a bundle of four Koe stones to pile up. Darren Moulding and Bottcher threw double after double and eventually found themselves with a deuce to tie it 2-2.

Bottcher saved his best shot for the ninth: He made a raise-double and his other stone rolled to a perfect corner freeze on Koe’s shot rock. Koe made a hit and gave up a steal of one to trail 3-2 with the hammer heading home.

“It was hard,” Koe said. “Benny and Colton wanted to take one and B.J. wanted to give up one. I don’t know what I wanted.”

The decision proved beneficial. Bottcher slid a few feet deep with his last rock in the 10th end and allowed Koe to hit and roll over, bumping the Bottcher’s stone just far enough for the win.

“I was two feet heavy and to be honest, we were dealing with a little bit of patchy ice tonight. I wasn’t sure how fast it was going to be, and it just slid a couple of extra feet,” Bottcher said. “We played 10 ends and he made one good shot at the end to win. A classic Kevin Koe-type shot.”

Bottcher and Team Wild Card, which also includes Brad Thiessen and Karrick Martin took the long road to the Tim Hortons Brier final to face a familiar in Koe, who beat them 7-5 in the semifinal at provincials. Wild Card avenged last year’s Brier final loss to Ontario’s John Epping, sending him home in the Wild Card game on March 1.

Bottcher lost 10-2 to Brad Jacobs and Northern Ontario in his first game in the main draw, but picked up steam and rolled through to the preliminary round at 6-1. He split is four games in the championship pool, with losses to Koe and Canada’s Brad Gushue. By the end of the playoff run, he had revenge on all but one.

Wild Card beat Canada 7-2 in the 3-vs.-4 Page game, then squeaked out 5-4 win over Northern Ontario in Sunday’s semifinal.

Bottcher’s semifinal win over Jacobs was a big one considering Jacobs was lights out for most of the week, curling 91 per cent. He stumbled in the 1-vs.-2 Page playoff game Saturday evening curling 56 per cent, and 86 per cent wasn’t enough in the semifinal.

Jacobs, Ryan Fry, E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden had to settle for their third Brier medal and second bronze as a unit.

Koe will represent Canada at the world men’s curling championship from March 30 to April 7 in Lethbridge, Alta.

EXTRA ENDS: The first-team all-stars were Jacobs (skip), Fry (third) and E.J. Harnden (second) of Northern Ontario and Saskatchewan’s Dallan Muyres at lead …The second-team all-stars were Manitoba’s Colin Hodgson at lead, Canada’s Brett Gallant at second, Alberta’s Neufeld the third and Canada’s Gushue at skip … Wild Card third Darren Moulding received the Ross Harstone Sportsmanship Award, which is voted on by the players … Attendance for the final was 4,234, bringing the total for the event to 75,617.

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