JACOBS CALLS LOSS BLESSING IN DISGUISE
Northern Ontario skip finds positives in surprising loss to unheralded rink
Having a great round robin at the Tim Hortons Brier is nothing new for the Brad Jacobs team from Northern Ontario.
Over the last five years, the Jacobs foursome is 45-7 in Brier round robins, including 8-1 this year at Brandon’s Westoba Place.
They’ve been pretty close to lights out most of this week, outscoring their opponents 78-38 and leading in almost every statistical category.
But in the previous four Briers, despite going 8-3 in 2018, 8-3 in 2017, 11-0 in 2016 and 10-1 in 2015, and making the playoffs each time, the Jacobs team came away without a championship.
“We try not to keep that in mind,” Northern Ontario third Ryan Fry said Thursday after an 11-5 dismantling of British Columbia’s Jim Cotter.
“Honestly, we’ve got things going right now, but we’ve been in this position so many times as a team.
“As a team, we’ve been dominant in round robins. It’s just that we’ve gotten into some games in the playoffs where guys have played phenomenal against us. So we’re just really trying to go through our process and keep this thing going.”
The Jacobs team finally hit a blip on Thursday night when it lost 7-6 to Ontario’s Scott McDonald. It was a surprise loss to a somewhat unheralded team, but Jacobs found plenty of positives in the game.
“Losing right now was exactly what we needed, in all honesty,” Jacobs said.
“I don’t think losing a game right now is a bad thing for us and it’s something that will help us going forward.
“It’s good to come back a bit, feel human again. We’re still in great shape.”
Northern Ontario has started with the hammer in all nine games, the result of them winning the pre-game draw-to-the-button competition every time.
“We’ve all hit the button and Brad’s living on it right now,” Fry said. “Hopefully, that keeps up. We’re getting some good fortune to play some good ends early in the games.”
But while Northern Ontario opened the scoring with multiple points in the first eight games, having the hammer didn’t help against Ontario. McDonald’s team stole two to jump out to the lead and then battled its way to an extra end win.
McDonald had to draw to the eight-foot with his last rock in the extra to win the game and improve to 6-3.
“It was a good day,” McDonald said.
“We’re hitting our groove. We knew Brad’s been playing outstanding and we’d really have to elevate our game.”
McDonald’s team, which upset John Epping in the Ontario final, won twice on Thursday and has thrown its name right into the playoff mix with one day of round robin play remaining.
“We’ve flown under the radar most of this year,” McDonald said. “We’ve put a lot of work in and a lot people at the Brier might not know who we are, but that’s kind of cool. It shows people that you don’t necessarily have to be a name team to be successful at the Brier. At the very least, I hope it’s inspiring for maybe youth curlers who are looking to elevate their game.”
Alberta’s Kevin Koe also had a huge day, staying perfect with a 7-6 win over Team Wild Card (Brendan Bottcher) Thursday afternoon and a 5-4 win over Manitoba’s Mike McEwen at night.
Koe, 9-0, made a great shot to remove a frozen Bottcher stone with his last rock in the 10th end to score three and win the afternoon game.
“That’s a big win,” Koe said. “We got out-curled and we really didn’t have a lot of chances because they played so well. We were playing decent, but five per cent worse than them, and that’s tough against good teams. We hung in there, and all of a sudden we had a shot for the win.
“That’s one of my best shots. I’m a good hitter, on the out-turn side especially, and if I’m going to have a shot to win, I want it to be that type of shot.”
Koe showed he can play the finesse shot, too, drawing to the four-foot for two points and the win in the 10th end against Manitoba.
Bottcher’s team rebounded with an 8-3 win over B.C. on Thursday night to improve to 7-2.
“It was huge for us,” Bottcher said. “You never want to give a game away, and I really felt like we had that game (against Koe). That said, we came out, bounced back and played really well tonight. It’s the kind of curling we’re going to need to have (today) if we’re going to be around for the weekend.”
Team Canada (Brad Gushue) improved to 8-1 with a 6-3 win over Manitoba and an 8-4 win over Saskatchewan (Kirk Muyres).
As for Jacobs, he remained philosophical after finally tasting defeat.
“What are you gonna do?” he said. “(Ontario) played great.
“I was awful. I couldn’t buy a shot in the first half of the game, in all honestly.”