GUSHUE RIGHT ON THE BUTTON
Team Canada rink repeats as Brier champs in a coming-out final for Alberta’s Bottcher
It was the day that Brad Gushue arrived as a certified gold-plated curling legend, and the day Brendan Bottcher arrived as a legitimate Canadian star of the future.
Gushue, in his 15th Brier, six days after setting the record for most wins ever by a skip, joined the gods of the game by achieving back-to-back Brier titles on Sunday in Regina with a 6-4 win in the final against a former world junior champion from Edmonton.
It’s not a long list of skips that have won back-to-back Briers.
All of them were the glory of their times.
Ernie Richardson of Saskatchewan did it twice. Don Duguid of Manitoba and Alberta’s Matt Baldwin, Ron Northcott, Pat Ryan, Randy Ferbey and Kevin Martin were the others.
The evening after he won the one-two game over Ontario’s John Epping by shooting 100 per cent, the 2006 Olympic gold medal winner who couldn’t win a Brier until he did it at home last year in St. John’s, N.L., did it in textbook style in the final.
After a pair of blank ends for openers, he scored his deuce on the third end and didn’t open the door the rest of the way.
Score two, force one. Score two, force one.
It was 4-2 Team Canada after seven ends and Gushue had the hammer for the eighth and 10th.
Bottcher managed to get it to 5-4 with a deuce in the ninth, setting the stage for Gushue’s classic finish by drawing the button in the 10th to win it.
Gushue shot 96 per cent. Bottcher kept right with him at 93. Team Canada was 91 and Alberta 88.
After going 11-2 to win last year, Gushue made it 12-2 this year. Now he goes to Las Vegas to see if he can match his 13-0 record at last year’s worlds.
All week Gushue talked about the remarkable lack of stress he felt after having finally won a Brier last year. He said the pressure to win at home in St. John’s was so intense he doubts he’d go through it again unless the victory was guaranteed.
The 37-year-old couldn’t have looked more calm, relaxed and in control as he did Sunday night, and that went right through his lineup.
But it was Bottcher’s Brier as well. After the way the 26-yearold got to the game, he was going to come out of this Brier a new star regardless.
Bottcher made two brilliant shots in the 10th and 11th ends of the 3-4 game to dispatch Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario on Saturday, then executed a hit and roll facing the prospect of giving up five in the fifth end to win 6-4 over John Epping of Ontario in the Sunday afternoon semifinal.
Suddenly a team that went 3-8 in their first Brier a year ago — the second-worst record of an Alberta representative of all time, behind only Stu Beagle in 1949 — was against Gushue in the final.
“It’s pretty remarkable,” Bottcher said. “We did everything we wanted to this week. We beat so many good teams. It’s just been incredible …
“Brad shot 100 per cent Saturday night, so we knew he’d have a ton of confidence from that. We went into the game feeling there was no pressure on us and a ton of pressure on him.”
That was not the way Gushue approached it. He knows pressure. He didn’t let it in the door of the Brandt Centre this week, even if the one game he lost was to Bottcher.
“To play in a Brier final has been a lifelong dream of mine since I was eight years old watching Russ Howard curl,” said Darren Moulding, 35, of the Bottcher rink.
“I always saw myself in this position, which may sound pretty weird. People might have stopped and laughed at me. But let’s not kid ourselves, I knew this was going to be the biggest day of my life.”
The winner of the Brier final receives $62,000 and the loser $52,000.
“The most money we’ve ever won was $10,000 in Red Deer this year and $8,000 at the (Grand) Slam (event) in Camrose last month,” Moulding said.