One-shot wonder
With a perfect draw on his final stone of the trials, Koe secures his berth in Olympics
OTTAWA — He’s a twotime world champion and a three-time Brier winner and now Kevin Koe can add Olympian to his lengthy list of accomplishments.
Koe and his Calgary teammates Mark Kennedy, Brent Laing and Ben Hebert beat Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen 7-6 in the final of the Canadian Olympic curling trials Sunday night a the Canadian Tire Centre.
They played a tremendous game in the final, just as they did all week while going 7-1 in the round robin, and needed everything they could muster against an extremely tough McEwen team.
In an absolute classic of a game, Koe had to make a draw against two McEwen rocks in the 10th end to secure the win. He needed all three of his sweepers working their hardest to get it there.
The foursome will represent Canada at the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea Feb. 9-25.
It will be the second trip to the Olympics for Kennedy and Hebert, who won gold medals in 2010 with the Kevin Martin team. However, it’s the first Olympic appearance for Koe, who won world championships in 2016 and 2010, and Laing, who has three world titles (2016 with Koe, 2012 and 2007 with Glenn Howard).
It was a truly a shame that either team had to lose this game. Both played splendidly and either team would have made fine Olympic representatives.
Both teams exchanged great shots in the first end as Koe came out and got aggressive in pursuit of an early score. McEwen twice had to skinny guards to make takeouts and he managed to force Koe into drawing to the four-foot for one.
That was about as good a start as McEwen could hope for against a skip who is normally deadly when he has hammer in the first end. Koe entered the game with a record of 21-2 when he has hammer in the first end this season. Koe put the pressure on in the second, getting hammer back by making McEwen draw against three for a single point. McEwen coolly put the rock on the button.
McEwen got two rocks behind cover in the third end but Kennedy made two runbacks, the second one a double, to set up another hit for one Koe point.
McEwen scored the first deuce of the game in the fourth, making a double with his last rock and sticking in the four-foot. The Koe foursome had a couple of half shots in the end and McEwen took full advantage to lead 3-2.
In the fifth, Wozniak missed a runback attempt and actually promoted a Koe rock into the eight-foot allowing Laing to draw into the house with his next one to lie three. B.J. Neufeld doubled two of them out but it left Koe in good shape to get the deuce back. He did just that, hitting and sticking for one with his last rock of the end to make it 4-3.
McEwen was curling 100% through five ends but was still trailing and his first miss of the game was a big one that came in this sixth. With his last rock, McEwen tried a come-around tap-back to score two, but his shooter rolled too far and Koe ended up with a steal of one.
McEwen tied it back up in the seventh after Koe’s double attempt slid just past the second rock. McEwen was able to hit and stick with his last rock for the deuce.
He then put all kinds of pressure on Koe in a tense eighth, forcing a draw against three. Koe’s rock needed to be swept hard for line and thought Laing and Hebert got it passed a rock at the top of the four foot, it was a bit heavy. After a measure it showed that the rock did stick around for a single point.
It looked like McEwen might be able to make something happen for two in the ninth but Wozniak’s rough game continued as he tried to raise a rock into the rings and wound up missing and taking out one of his own rocks. Neufeld then tried a raise and it went right between two Koe rocks.
With his last rock, Koe made a raise takeout and to lie three, which forced McEwen to draw to the eight-foot for one.
Hebert played two perfect tick shots to open the ninth, clearing guards off the centre line. That kept the line clear to the four-foot and Koe took full advantage, drawing his last one into perfect position to book a trip to the Olympics.
He was cool and calm, his sweepers helped the shot along beautifully and they were all worthy of the name Olympians.