Skip’s sixth-end shot is one for the history books
Dramatic four-ender brings to mind Martin’s triple against Ferbey in 2008
And still champion SPRUCE GROVE …
It was one of the greatest shots to get to the Brier in Alberta curling history.
Brendan Bottcher made a circus shot for four — an in-off taking out his own rock on the wings and removing a near perfectly placed Karsten Sturmay last-rock shot to score four in the sixth end en route to a 9-3 victory — that will be remembered from here for ages.
It ranked right up there with the one Kevin Martin made in the same Grant Fuhr Arena a decade earlier at the same event against four-time Brier champion Randy Ferbey.
Sweeping it Sunday was Karrick Martin, who was in the rink to watch his dad make it in 2008. “It felt just as good,” said Martin.
“In 2008, it was a round-thehorn triple,” he remembered. “It was the same as Brendan, he could have drawn for one. And this, like 2008, it was pretty much the game.”
Then, and now.
“It was a shot to win. We had to go for it,” said Bottcher. “It was a team decision to make that. We could have played an easier shot that would have left us still in control of the game. But you have to go for a shot like that if you think you have a chance to make it. I had to be calm and go down and make it.
Added Martin: “Brendan has been making that shot a lot. He just put the broom down and made it.”
Bottcher said he didn’t know Kevin Martin made that shot in this rink: “I’ve seen it on video. But I wasn’t here.”
“I saw it on video, too. It was one hell of a shot,” said second Brad Thiesen.
“Brendan made it perfect,” said third Darren Moulding. “Brendan asked what we thought but he put the broom down and made it. It was a round-the-horn triple. Same as Brendan, he could have drawn for one. That was pretty much the game.”
Bottcher, 26, who last year became the first skip not named Ferbey, Martin or Kevin Koe to win Alberta this century, repeated the feat of running the table and winning all five games as he did in Westlock.
And now it’s back to the Brier for the team of Moulding, 35, Thiesen, 27 and Martin, 28.
Last year when Bottcher made his winning shot in an extra end, Moulding went nuts, flying around like a balloon with the air released. This year, he was just part of the handshaking.
“It was over for 45 minutes when Brendan made the shot,” said Moulding of the 9-3 shakehands-after-nine victory. “We got our celebration after six.”
The win ended the remarkable run by Sturmay, at 21 the youngest skip in the history of the event. Bottcher, a former University of Alberta Golden Bears skip against the current U of A skip and his team with an average age of 22 and a half in, unquestionably, the Alberta final featuring the youngest eight players on the ice in history.
So it’s back to the Brier with something to prove for the Edmonton Saville Centre team that won the Road to the Roar event, which qualified them for the Roar of the Rings Olympic Trials where they went 4-4.
The something to prove is the 3-8 record they produced in finishing 10th in St. John’s, N.L., while Calgary’s Kevin Koe was making it to the final against Brad Gushue. Koe, who is already in Korea for the Olympic Winter Games, wasn’t here again this year. But he’s not going to be in Regina for the Brier either.
This time, Bottcher, who curled 93 per cent in the final, will be representing Alberta by himself. And with that will come a lot more pressure to perform. A lot of it will be internal.
“I think we learned a lot about our team and ourselves. I think we’ll go to Regina looking for redemption,” said Martin.
“I think our performance at the Brier was the reason we won the pre-trials, won two events on the tour and why we did so well (4-4) at the Trials and why we did so well here. I wouldn’t take that 3-8 at the Brier back for anything,” said Moulding.
“Winning 10 in a row at provincials is pretty hard to do,” Thiessen said of running the table both years. “I think we played from average to well all week, and today, we played really well. We were clutch. When we got pushed a little bit we really responded.
“But credit to Sturmay’s team. They beat everybody else here to get to play us three times. That’s a great young team and they’re going to keep improving. And they’re a good group of guys.
“They’re going to be back and Koe is going to be back from the Olympics next year. So we better keep improving, too.”