Home advantage spurs Gushue
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — From playing in national finals to winning Olympic gold, St. John’s skip Brad Gushue has certainly played in some big games over his long career. But playing a Brier in his hometown was an experience all its own.
Gushue and his Newfoundland and Labrador teammates battled some early jitters Saturday before settling in for an 8-6 victory over Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher in front of an adoring crowd at Mile One Centre.
“The adrenalin was pumping, there was some emotion there,” Gushue said. “The legs were shaking, the hand was shaking. I’ve thrown enough that I just had to trust it. It turned out OK.”
The veteran skip was the lone curler in the four-game opening draw to throw 100 per cent. He broke a 5-5 tie in the eighth with a nice double-raise and followed with a draw to score three.
“That was a huge shot,” Gushue said of his first throw in the end. “Probably a game-winner to be honest.”
It is the first time St. John’s has hosted the Brier since 1972. Gushue, making his 14th appearance at the event, is trying to become the first Newfoundlander to hoist the Tankard since Jack MacDuff in 1976.
In other early games, Manitoba’s Mike McEwen topped Saskatchewan’s Adam Casey 6-5 and Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs outscored British Columbia’s John Morris 9-7.
Nova Scotia’s Jamie Murphy earned the last spot in the 12-team main draw with a 9-6 victory over Yukon’s Craig Kochan in the qualification final.
Bottcher, the 2012 world junior champ, was making his Brier debut. He hushed the packed house with a single, but Gushue generated a big roar with a deuce in the second and added two more points in the fourth.
Gushue nearly broke the game open in the fifth, but Bottcher coolly drew to the pin against three to cut the deficit to one.
The 25-year-old native of Sherwood Park, Alta., did well in a challenging environment. “It’s a little weird hearing crickets when you make shots and then the building just going nuts when they make shots,” Bottcher said.
Team Canada’s Kevin Koe, who beat Gushue in last year’s Brier final, defeated Quebec’s JeanMichel Menard 7-5 in the evening.