Alberta rinks impressive at Brier
Calgary’s Koe and Edmonton’s Bottcher each tally impressive wins on Monday
They're big shots at the Brier … both of them.
And they're living up to that status — one rink from Calgary, and the other from Edmonton — to give Albertans plenty to cheer for at the 2021 Canadian men's curling championship.
After four days in Calgary's Brier bubble, Kevin Koe's crew out of the Glencoe Club stands alone in first place of Pool B play, while Brendan Bottcher's bunch from the Saville Community Sports Centre have matched the most wins in Pool A action.
Wild Rose pride is on the upswing with what's going on at the Markin Macphail Centre.
“Hopefully, we're getting in a groove,” said Bottcher after improving to 3-1 with a Monday afternoon triumph over Wild Card 3. “And if we can to do that, we hopefully can play even better in the next few days.”
Better?
That would be quite the delight — and perhaps a difficult task — after how Bottcher and Alberta performed in their latest win.
Up against one of the craftiest players in the sport, the Edmontonians executed at 90 per cent in beating their foe skipped by legendary Wayne Middaugh — in for usual boss man Glenn Howard, who's sidelined by broken ribs and a cracked sternum suffered in a snowmobile crash.
“Skipper must've shot 100 per cent,” said Alberta lead Karrick Martin of Bottcher's brilliance in the 5-3 victory. “I think they had him at 99, but I had him at 100.”
Martin himself weighed in with an 83 per cent stat, while second Brad Thiessen and third Darren Moulding each put together 89 per cent efforts, with the latter delivering pivotal shots in the matinee. Moulding's triple-takeout in the fourth end thwarted what was building up to be a big count for Wild Card 3, which eventually managed only one in the frame, and his hit and roll in the fifth set up the first deuce of the game and put Alberta up for good at 3-1.
Bottcher, meanwhile, was spot on end after end, carrying a clean game into the eighth in what proved to be a win he likely won't forget for a while.
“I thought it was really neat playing against Wayne,” Bottcher said. “When I was just getting into curling, he was winning Briers, so that's pretty neat to have come to a place where now we're both playing against each other in a Brier.”
Martin was also pumped to face off against Middaugh.
“For me, he was definitely one of my idols growing up — I loved watching him and dad fight it out,” said the son of another rock star, Kevin Martin. “So it's always fun playing him.
“And it's good to get the `W'.” Alberta's continued success secured the win in the late ends, when it stole one in eight and forced Middaugh to take just one in nine while facing five rocks with the hammer.
Bottcher proved he was all business, even though he was playing against an idol.
“From my perspective, I don't spend a lot of time focusing on who it is we are playing,” said the skip from Edmonton. “I really think we have a winning formula, and if we just play our way as well as we possibly can, we win a lot of curling games. And Monday
was a perfect example of that. They threw some unique stuff at us, and they played pretty well as well. But we just executed at a level that was hard to keep up with.
“Wayne was throwing curveballs out there,” Bottcher continued. “He played some shots that not a lot of guys would call.”
Meanwhile, the crew from Calgary kept up its end of the provincial powerhousing with a late Monday victory over winless Nunavut (0-4).
Wild Card 2, skipped by Koe, started with an ugly six-ender in the first, got three more in the third and cruised to the 11-3 victory, to maintain its perfect record — 5-0 — atop Pool B.
The Glencoe Club team gets Tuesday off.
But Bottcher & Co. get another big test against 2014 Olympic winner and 2013 Brier champ Brad Jacobs and his Northern Ontario squad (2-2) in their only draw Tuesday (6:30 p.m., TSN), trying to keep up with fellow
three-win teams Manitoba (3-0) and New Brunswick (3-1) in Pool A standings.
“It's early in the week, but these wins count as much as the ones on Thursday, Friday and Saturday,” Bottcher added. “So we definitely need to win them while you can. We played a really good game (Monday), and it was nice to cap it off with a `W'.
“I feel like the team's all pulling in the same direction.”