N. Ontario, N.L. clinch first and second
Brad Jacobs, Brad Gushue and their respective teammates are going to see a lot of each other over the next few days.
Northern Ontario a nd Newfoundland and Labrador clinched first and second place in the Tim Hortons Brier standings on Thursday, so their roundrobin matchup Friday morning represents a dress rehearsal for the 1-2 Page playoff game.
According to Jacobs, though, it has plenty of meaning.
“Any time you can make it into the 1-2 game, that’s a pretty big accomplishment,” he said. “It gives you two cracks at the final. But, having said that, there’s still a lot to play for (Friday). We are going to have a big game.
“We know that playing Brad Gushue is going to mean a lot now. It’s going to mean hammer ( in the first end of the 1-2 game) and choice of stones, so there’s no time to let up.”
Letting up hasn’t happened yet in this Brier for the 2014 Olympic gold medallists based in Sault Ste. Marie.
“At this point, we’ve been rolling along so nicely that we just want to continue to roll along as nice as we have been. We want to continue to execute and to make shots,” Jacobs said, underselling Northern Ontario’s full- throttle attack, which on Thursday produced victories of 8- 5 against Manitoba and 10- 5 against New Brunswick.
Gushue, the 2006 Olympic gold medallist from St. John’s, and his current crewmates improved to 9-1 by downing Prince Edward Island 11-7.
The third and fourth playoff spots went to Alberta and Manitoba.
The Albertans got there first with their 8- 3 triumph against Team Canada in the morning, while Manitoba, after losing to Northern Ontario, made the most of its second attempt by rallying to down Quebec 8-5.
A miss by Quebec skip Jean-Michel Ménard with his last shot of the eighth end allowed Brier newcomer Mike McEwen to make a hit for four points that turned around that game.
The rising exterior temperatures this week and the collective heat produced by spectators have created accumulations of frost on many spots of the ice surface. “I know it was frosty ( Wednesday), but it has got to the point where it’s kind of ridiculous,” McEwen said. “We are not going to be able to change it, so we just have to find a way to adapt.”
For their part, Team Canada members were left to wonder what happened after a promising start fizzled and turned into five defeats in the final eight games. “When we were 3- 0, we were kind of looking at it and saying, ‘ If we go 5- 3 or 4- 4, you’re looking OK,’ but we just couldn’t do it,” lead Nolan Thiessen said. “Those top four teams that are going to be in the playoffs, we didn’t beat any of them.”
The winner of Friday’s 1- 2 playoff game advances to the Sunday night final. The loser gets another chance, though, with a do- over opportunity against the survivor of the 3- 4 contest on Saturday evening.