BRIER BOUND
Bottcher rink wins Alberta men’s title
It was like the air came out of Darren Moulding when the extra end last rock from skip Brendan Bottcher hit and stayed for the win.
The third, who joined the team in mid-season when Pat Simmons couldn’t complete the season due to injury, launched his broom skyward. It landed two sheets over at the Spirit Centre.
Moulding, a barrel-chested veteran from Lethbridge, was barrelling down the ice like a defensive end sacking a quarterback. He hit Bottcher with full force but hung on in a happy bear hug and then lit out to repeat the scene with front enders Brad Thiessen and Karrick Martin.
It was Moulding who made the triple runback shot to get the Bottcher bunch out of jail earlier in the end.
“That’s 15 years of bashing my head against the wall against Ferbey, Martin and Koe,” said the veteran. “There were definitely times I was wondering if I’d ever get a shot to do this.
“That release you watched was just 15 years of curling, of commitment and anguish all coming out at once,” said the curler who had made it to six previous provincials.
“It was everything coming out. That’s what that was,” he said after lifting the Boston Pizza Cup after the 6-5 win over Edmonton’s Ted Appelman in Sunday’s final.
Moulding told the story of how he got the call.
“Brendan sent me a message on Facebook. I figured he was maybe looking for me to spare a Slam event. When he called, he said he wanted me to play the rest of the season.”
The way Bottcher and mates played to win their first Alberta championship, first purple hearts and first trip to the Brier, trumpeted the idea that they belong there.
The expectation that the first team to win the province not skipped by Kevin Koe, Kevin Martin or Randy Ferbey since 1999, could end up as one-anddone flameouts like Edmonton’s Ken Hunka, Calgary’s Harold Breakenridge, Leduc’s Greg Ferster and Edmonton’s Tom Reed, evaporated on the way to their crowning here Sunday evening.
Bottcher won all five games he played here. Everybody else, including Appelman, lost three.
Bottcher interrupted the ‘regular’ rotation.
Dating back to Calgary’s Ed Lukowich in 1983, ’84, ’86 and ’94, following through to Pat Ryan in ’85, ’87, ’88 and ’89, Martin in ’91, ’92, ’95, ’97, 2000, ’06, ’07, ’08, ’09, ’11, ’13, Ferbey in ’01, ’02, ’03, ’04 and ’05 and Koe in ’10, ’12, ’14, ’15 and ’16, those five skips have won 29 of the 33 purple hearts available.
Alberta teams have won 10 of the last 16 Briers dating back to 2001, including the last three in a row. And, of course, Martin was a major contributor to that stat.
He was sent down from the Sportsnet broadcast booth to do the post-game interview with Bottcher. When that was done, he joined the team for the medal presentations as their coach.
And now, he will be going back to the Brier without having to combine coaching and broadcasting commitments as he did here. The Brier is a TSN property.
“They played very, very well,” said the Old Bear. “Yes they did. But you could sure see the nerves today.
“I enjoyed watching that game and broadcasting that game. Both teams. It was wonderful. It was fun to watch. It was fun to call. What a game. Extra end. What a beauty.
“I was so happy for Darren Moulding. He really struggled the first three or four ends with his emotion. The last six ends he was near 100 per cent.”
Bottcher said he was happy to take the hit from Moulding.
“It’s just amazing,” said the 2012 World Junior champion, who took silver at the 2013 Universiade after giving the University of Alberta its first-ever national curling title.
Bottcher lost the 2015 Boston Pizza Cup final to Koe.
“The Brier is what we all grew up dreaming of one day being able to get there. Now it’s reality.”
Karrick, who talked his dad into coaching, said: “We’re taking him to St. John’s.
“It means a lot, growing up in my family, for me to win a purple heart and get to the Brier myself,” he said.
“Just unbelievable,” said Thiessen. “This is what I’ve been curling for my whole life. It’s fantastic to get it. Indescribable.”
You just knew crowning a new provincial champion would be an event. But imagine if it had been Appelman. Only one member of the team had ever curled on TV before.
The bottom line is, Alberta appears to be sending its usual worthy representative.