When Does Koe Curl Again at Olympics
Gushue'south shorthanded squad tops Alberta'south Koe in actress end of ballsy Brier final
They came in to the Tim Hortons Bramble physically and mentally exhausted, subsequently fighting for a bronze medal at the Olympics simply two weeks earlier, and and then had to play a homo brusque throughout the playoffs.
Somehow, someway, Brad Gushue and his teammates from St. John's, N.L., yet managed to win the Canadian men's curling championship on Sunday nighttime at Enmax Heart in Lethbridge, Atla.
Gushue, 41, captured his fourth Brier title with a 9-viii extra-cease win over Alberta's Kevin Koe, despite playing without long-time vice-skip Marker Nichols, who missed the entire playoffs with COVID-19.
"This was for Marking," Gushue said moments after the final rock came to rest in the 11th end.
"To proceed the run we did for the terminal iii games, that'south pretty ballsy."
This one will go down as the stuff of legend.
With only Gushue, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker carrying on, the trio beat Saskatchewan's Colton Flasch in the iii-4 Folio playoff game, knocked out defending champion Brendan Bottcher in Lord's day'south semifinal and finally topped Koe, who was looking for his record fifth Brier title as a skip.
It was an absolutely epic final, complete with the kind of shot-making you'd wait of two of the greatest skips of all time and a win for the ages for Gushue.
"Brett and Geoff, they did all this," Gushue said. "Holy smokes, they worked hard.
"All week we struggled with the free energy and the focus and once Mark went downwards, we knew we had to bring information technology to be competitive. Boy, did they e'er bring it. I'thousand merely and so proud of everybody and I can't expect to see Marker, in a couple days."
Of all the many memorable wins Gushue has had over the years — this is his fourth Canadian championship in half-dozen years — this one has to exist well-nigh the top, just considering of all the adversity his team had to overcome.
The Gushue foursome, which has now won the Canadian Olympic trials, a bronze medal at the Olympics, and the Bramble all in i season, will represent Canada at the world men'south championship in Las Vegas April ii-ten.
"I gotta get some rest before we get to Vegas," Gushue said. "A couple weeks off, for sure, earlier we caput down there, but we're excited … it's a long curling flavour."
With Nichols cheering the squad on over social media from his Lethbridge hotel room, where he has been laid up with COVID-19 symptoms since testing positive on Friday, Gushue, Gallant and Walker played brilliantly in both a ix-3 semifinal win over Bottcher and the final against Koe.
Walker threw the first 3 rocks of every stop, Gallant the second three and Gushue the final two. On many shots, the team used only i sweeper, just the team notwithstanding managed to get rocks in the correct places with regularity.
In the absenteeism of Nichols, Walker took on the role of vice-skip, holding the broom in the house and calling the line when Gushue was shooting.
"Physically, I feel amazing … I don't know how, just I feel really proficient right at present," Gallant said. "Mentally, that was draining. With one less histrion out there, you are thinking more and trying to practice a few other jobs.
"I'm definitely on a high right at present. I tin can't believe we got that done. I'll exist on Cloud ix for a few more days."
Gushue said he had never fifty-fifty played a game of any significance with only three players earlier Friday, but his team won three straight playoff games despite being a man down.
He also worried before the Brier began that his team would be as well tired after competing at the Olympics in Beijing. They had barely overcome the intense jet lag from their trip home from China when the event began.
And yet, at that place they were in the tournament final in one case over again.
"Information technology think it'southward just belief," Walker said. "Nosotros all know we're great curlers and we proved to the world simply how good nosotros really are. I was happy that I was able to step upward and make full a couple of other roles. Brett was phenomenal today as well, filling a couple of other roles, and Brad was Brad. It was impressive."
All indications are the Alberta foursome volition divide later on this season but that sure didn't stop Koe, B.J. Neufeld, John Morris and Ben Hebert from putting up another valiant battle and reaching the final for the third time in the last four years.
"Information technology's disappointing … I thought this one was ours for the taking," Koe said. "We were playing practiced, nosotros had the hammer in the first finish, we kept fighting back. information technology was great to be curling again in our dwelling house province, in front of friends and family. But yeah, this 1 will probably sting more than whatever of the other final losses."
While Brier finals are oftentimes low-scoring, defensive affairs, this one featured plenty of multiple-signal ends.
Koe had the hammer to outset because he won the Folio 1-2 game over Bottcher on Saturday dark and, after blanking the beginning end, he made good in the second, scoring a deuce to go up 2-0.
Gushue bounced right back with a three in the third terminate but Koe blanked the 4th and took the atomic number 82 again in the 5th, with another deuce.
A large potential turning indicate came in the sixth. A Koe miss with his last rock of the terminate immune Gushue an opportunity to depict to anywhere inside the eight-foot for three more points and a half-dozen-iv lead.
Merely Koe is an all-time great in men's crimper for a reason and his team battled dorsum correct abroad, in the seventh. When Gushue'southward hit-and-whorl attempt on last rock didn't get far plenty backside cover, Koe played a soft-weight hitting and stick to score a deuce and tie the game at vi-half-dozen.
Koe made a huge double with his commencement rock in the eighth to take away a potential large terminate from the Newfoundlanders and that forced Gushue to draw for the start single indicate of the game and take a seven-half-dozen lead.
Gushue poured on the force per unit area in the 9th and Koe had to draw the button confronting two with his last rock, just he came up light, resulting in a steal of one and an eight-6 lead for the wild carte team.
Merely Koe was undeterred, and his squad clawed out another deuce in the 10thursday to tie the game at 8-8 and send it to an extra end.
Gushue had hammer in the actress and that made information technology extremely likely his team would win. Sure plenty, Gushue was left with a simple hitting and stick for a unmarried point and the win.
He won his first Brier in 2017 in his hometown of St. John'southward, beating Koe on that 24-hour interval with a last-rock depict. This fourth dimension he won it on last rock again, becoming as his foursome became the first wild card team to always win a Canadian men's or women's championship.
"This is right up there with St. John'south, to be honest," Gushue said.
"This 1 was just overcoming one actually crappy thing that happened to united states of america. A really crappy thing. To overcome this, and to come across these guys take on the roles that they had to take on, and do it then well, it'southward super impressive."
Meanwhile, Bottcher's reign equally Canadian men's crimper champion, and his streak of appearances in the Brier final, both concluded on Dominicus afternoon.
Bottcher'south Edmonton squad lost to Gushue's in the semifinal and missed the playing in the terminal for the first time in five years.
Bottcher, third Pat Janssen, 2nd Brad Thiessen and pb Karrick Martin, were Team Canada this season after winning the Bramble in 2021 (Darren Moulding was 3rd at the time).
The Bottcher foursome also played in Brier finals in 2018, 2019 and 2020, losing all three times. Bottcher has won i gold medal, three silvers and one bronze over the terminal five years.
Twyman@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/Ted_Wyman
Source: https://torontosun.com/sports/curling/gushues-shorthanded-team-tops-albertas-koe-in-extra-end-of-epic-brier-final
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