National Post (National Edition)
Just call him Cool Hand Jacobs
ONCE-FIERY NORTHERN ONTARIO TEAM KEEPS IT CALM
Having a great round robin at the Tim Horton’s Brier is nothing new for the Brad Jacobs team from Northern Ontario.
Over the last five years, the Jacobs foursome is 45-6 in Brier round robins, including 8-0 this year at Brandon’s Westoba Place.
They’ve been absolutely lights out this week, outscoring their opponents 72-31 and leading in almost every statistical category.
But in the previous four Briers, despite going 8-3 in 2018, 8-3 in 2017, 11-0 in 2016 and 10-1 in 2015 and making the playoffs each time, the Jacobs team came away without a championship.
“We try not to keep that in mind,” Northern Ontario third Ryan Fry said Thursday after an 11-5 dismantling of British Columbia’s Jim Cotter.
“Honestly, we’ve got things going right now, but we’ve been in this position so many times as a team.
“As a team we’ve been dominant in round robins, it’s just we’ve gotten into some games in the playoffs where guys have played phenomenal against us. So we’re just really trying to go through our process and keep this thing going.”
Much has been made this week of a change in demeanour for the normally fiery Jacobs team, which also includes brothers E.J. and Ryan Harnden.
They’ve been so calm and cool and they insist they aren’t thinking past the next game, the next end or even the next shot.
“All that comes from not looking at outcomes,” Fry said.
“That’s probably something we’ve done in the past a little too much. We’ve gotten a little too high on what may be or what could be.”
Northern Ontario continues to excel in the early ends of games. They started with hammer for the eighth straight game Thursday, the result of them winning the pre-game draw-to-the-button competition every time.
“We’ve all hit the button and Brad’s living on it right now,” Fry said. “Hopefully, that keeps up. We’re getting some good fortune to play some good ends early in the games.”
Northern Ontario has opened the scoring with multiple points in every game so far, the Sault Ste. Marie-based curlers know everything can change in a hurry now that only the cream of the crop is left in the tournament.
“We’re getting some breaks, we’re getting some misses out of teams, which we know will end pretty quickly, so we’re going to have to be ready for those battletesting moments.
“At the end of the day, it’s curling and it’s not the end of the world one way or another. We’ve just got to come out here and play our best and hopefully, at the end of it we’re holding that trophy up.”
Northern Ontario, which plays again Thursday night against Ontario (Scott Mcdonald), has clinched at least a playoff tiebreaker at 8-0, as has Alberta’s Kevin Koe, who stayed perfect with a 7-6 win over Team Wild Card (Brendan Bottcher) Thursday afternoon.
Koe made a great shot to remove a frozen Bottcher stone with his last rock in the 10th end to score three and win the game.
“That’s a big win,” Koe said. “We got out-curled and we really didn’t have a lot of chances because they played so well. We were playing decent but five per cent worse than them and that’s tough against good teams. We hung in there and all of a sudden we had a shot for the win.
“That’s one of my best shots. I’m a good hitter on the out-turn side especially and if I’m gonna have a shot to win, I want it to be that type of shot.”
Team Canada (Brad Gushue) improved to 7-1 with a 6-3 win over Manitoba (Mike Mcewen) and sits alone in third place. Team Wild Card is in fourth place with a 6-2 record, while Ontario (Scott Mcdonald) is fifth at 5-3.
“I think you have to treat every game like it’s the final game of the week,” Mcdonald said after a 7-4 win over Saskatchewan (Kirk Muyres). “Our backs are up against the wall and we know that one more loss might not get us into the playoffs. Every game now is must-win and that lets us keep our intensity for all our games, which is really important.”
Manitoba (Mike Mcewen) fell to 4-4, along with Saskatchewan and B.C. Those teams will need to win all of their games and hope for some help just to get a sniff of the playoffs.
“You do the math for me,” McEwen said. “Things aren’t in our control anymore. We just need to win out and see what happens.”
It seems that’s the same attitude Northern Ontario has — just keep winning and hope good things come your way.
“That’s what comes with experience,” Fry said. “You stop looking at outcomes and what’s gonna happen. You really can only control how you treat one another out on the ice, the type of energy you bring, the type of dynamic you bring and the type of shots you’re making.”
THAT’S WHAT COMES WITH EXPERIENCE.