Alberta takes perfect record into playoffs

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This article was published 09/03/2019 (2117 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Alberta’s Kevin Koe had to grind out a lot of games early on at the Tim Hortons Brier, but his team has never waivered.

Koe, third B.J. Neufeld, second Colton Flasch and lead Ben Hebert completed a perfect 11-0 record in preliminary-round and championship-pool play with a 9-3 win over Saskatchewan’s Kirk Muyres (5-6) and a 7-5 victory over Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs (9-2) at Westoba Place on Friday.

The finale against Jacobs was a tight game, but Koe made a quiet tap for two with his last in the 10th end to win the game.

“It’s a pretty tough field,” Neufeld said. “I don’t think you expect to come into an event like this and run the table in the round robin. We played well, we’ve made the right shots at the right times and then got some really big breaks along the way as well. Obviously to rattle off 11 in a row you need some pretty big breaks.

“It’s a pretty great accomplishment. It gets us everything we want in terms of rocks and hammer in the 1-2 game. We feel like that’s a good advantage for us and we’re excited going into the playoffs.”

It may sound like an advantage to play in the 1-vs.-2 game for a skip who has won three Canadian men’s curling championships, but it’s actually pretty rare territory. This is the only the second time in Koe’s seven Brier appearances that he has qualified for the contest, which begins at Westoba Place at 7 p.m.

The last time Koe qualified for the game was in 2014. He lost the contest but went on to beat British Columbia’s John Morris in the final.

“That’s something new for me,” Koe said. “I think I’ve been in one before. That’s good. Obviously you want to be there.”

Alberta’s first playoff opponent will be familiar in Northern Ontario. In a strange quirk in the schedule, Koe’s team will play Jacob’s in back-to-back games, although more will be at stake this evening.

The winner will advance straight through to Sunday’s final at 7 p.m., while the loser will take on the winner of the 3-vs.-4 Page game winner on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Neufeld feels his team is ready for the playoffs, especially since they went all 10 ends in six of their 11 games.

“It’s nice to be battle-tested for sure and I feel like we are,” he said. “We’ve had a couple of games where teams played really well against us and we had to grind to win. We know if we do get down or have hard luck, it is possible for us to come back, we’ve done it a couple of times this week.”

Jacobs, who plays with Ryan Fry, E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden, would have liked to have the choice of last rock or stone selection, but he’s just happy to be in the 1-vs.-2 game.

“It’s huge,” said Jacobs, who drew the four-foot with his last rock in an extra end to top Canada’s Brad Gushue 7-6 in their afternoon game. “It gives us two chances at making the final. Like I said earlier, that’s mission accomplished.

“You want to obviously make it into the championship pool, make it into the top four, but ultimately you want to get into that 1-2 game.”

The 3-vs.-4 Page game will also be a rematch from Friday evening’s draw when Canada (9-2) takes on Brendan Bottcher’s Team Wild Card (8-3).

Gushue earned last-rock advantage in the first end of today’s elimination game at 2 p.m., with an 8-5 win in the final championship pool draw. The foursome, which includes third Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker, stole a pair of points in the fourth end and another in the fifth to take a 5-2 lead they would not relinquish.

Bouncing back from the afternoon’s loss with a convincing victory has the team feeling good heading into the playoffs.

“We’ve been playing pretty good all week, off here and there, but as a whole playing pretty well,” Gallant said. “I think the stats show that we’re pretty close to the top. We just need to put it all together, all four of us, and we’re pretty close to doing that. That was one of our best games of the week out there, which is great.”

Oddly enough, Gushue has never won a 3-vs.-4 Page playoff game. He has an 0-4 all-time record at the Canadian men’s curling championship.

That doesn’t bother Gallant, who’s looking forward to taking on Wild Card in a rematch in which he expects both teams to be at their best.

“We know everyone is going to come in firing tomorrow,” he said. “It’s going to be a little more intense tomorrow for sure. A lot more on the line, but for us we really wanted to make sure we were sharp tonight. It showed that we’re on our game and we’re going to get their best game tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Manitoba’s foursome of Mike McEwen, Reid Carruthers, Derek Samagalski and Colin Hodgson finished their Brier with a 6-5 record following a 9-7 win over British Columbia’s Jim Cotter (4-7) and 8-4 victory over Ontario’s Scott McDonald (6-5). McDonald dropped a 6-4 decision to Wild Card in the afternoon, while Saskatchewan ended its event on a high with a 6-5 triumph over British Columbia.

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