KOE SETS SIGHTS ON EASIEST PATH TO BRIER FINAL
Unbeaten Alberta skip looking to avoid landmines that come with extra games
Kevin Koe hopes to take the easy road for once.
The Alberta skip has played in five finals at the Tim Hortons Brier, but he has never reached the championship game through the Page playoff 1 vs. 2 game.
In fact, he has played in the 1 vs. 2 game only once, losing badly to B.C.’s John Morris in 2014.
He and his Calgary teammates can change all that today when they play in the 1 vs. 2 game at Westoba Place.
Alberta ran its record to 11-0 with a 9-3 win over Saskatchewan (Kirk Muyres) on Friday afternoon, followed by a 7-5 win over Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs to clinch top spot in the standings.
“Every final I’ve been in, I’ve come through the semi,” said Koe, a three-time Canadian men’s curling champion. “I’ve been in the semi five times. I’m not complaining, but it would be nice to start a new trend with this team of winning the 1-2 game and limiting the amount of games played. We avoided the 3-4 game for once.
“I was in the 1-2 game once and it didn’t last too long, either. We got killed by John Morris, so we were in it for about an hour, I think. We’re in the 1-2 game, so we’ve got as good a chance as anybody. It would just be nice to see us come through and do it.”
Alberta and Northern Ontario (9-2) will meet again tonight in the 1 vs. 2 game, with the winner advancing directly to Sunday’s final and the loser playing in the semifinal. Jacobs pulled off a 7-6 extra-end win over Team Canada’s Brad Gushue on Friday afternoon, which gave him second place.
“It’s huge,” Jacobs said. “It gives us two chances at making the final. That’s mission accomplished. You want to obviously make it into the championship pool, make it into the top four, but ultimately you want to get into that 1-2 game and if you can, get the hammer. Destiny is in our own hands. We control our own destiny at this point and couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Gushue (9-2) will play Team Wild Card’s Brendan Bottcher (8-3) in the 3 vs. 4 game today. The winner will advance to the semifinal, while the loser is out.
“I feel like we’re really at peace with how we’ve done so far,” Bottcher said. “We’re trending in the right direction and we’re definitely playing our best in these last couple of games. That’s all you can really ask for in an event like this.”
Gushue, the two-time defending Brier champion, has never won a 3 vs. 4 game in his lengthy career. He’s played in four of them (2013, 2010, 2009 and 2004).
“I was trying to think about that when we found out we were in the 3 vs. 4 game,” Gushue said. “I knew it was bad, but I thought we might have snuck one in there. Yeah, it’s bad.”
It’s been six years since Gushue played in a 3 vs. 4 game and he’s played in a lot of big games since then. His team won a world championship in 2017 and silver at the worlds in 2018.
“All of those were before we had won a Brier,” Gushue said. “We’ve won a couple now, and it’s a little bit different mentality now than what it was when we were in our mid-20s, trying to break through.”
Gushue beat Bottcher 8-5 on Friday night, a win that gave Team Canada third place, the hammer and choice of rocks for today’s 3-4 game.
“Getting hammer and getting the rocks is a big advantage,” Gushue said. “Your chances of winning probably go up by 20 per cent.”
Alberta will have the hammer and choice of rocks in the 1 vs. 2 game, which gives them an edge against a very strong Jacobs team that has shown some of its best curling this week.
While Alberta has won every game so far, there haven’t been many easy contests. Friday’s game against Saskatchewan was an exception.
“Yeah, that’s the first one,” said Koe, who curls with B.J. Neufeld, Colton Flasch and Ben Hebert. “It’s nice to get a bit of a mental break out there, get off to a good start, and be able to put it on cruise control.”
Hebert, who curled with Koe at the 2018 Olympics, likes the way his team is rolling right now.
“We’re playing as good as we need to right now to win,” Hebert said. “We seem to have a good little thing going right now ... 11-0 in the Brier is tough, so we’re pretty happy right now. We’re in the 1-2 game and we’re in a good spot.”
Have we seen the best of the Koe team yet?
“I hope not,” Hebert said. “I guess we’ll see.”
CAREY-ING ON: Chalk up Chelsea Carey’s debut at the world women’s curling championship as a learning experience. She’s hoping her return to the event will lead to a podium appearance.
The Calgary skip, who settled for a fourth-place showing at the 2016 playdowns, will be joined by Sarah Wilkes, Dana Ferguson and Rachel Brown at the March 16-24 competition in Silkeborg, Denmark.
“I don’t know that I’m doing anything different, but I’m more prepared for what’s going to happen than I could have possibly been the first time,” Carey said Friday. “I think that’s a good thing.”
Joining the Canadian team as headliners at the 700-seat Silkeborg Sportscenter are Olympic champion Anna Hasselborg of Sweden, American Jamie Sinclair and Switzerland’s Alina Paetz.
“There are lots of really good teams there,” Wilkes said. “We’ve played against a few of them a couple of times this year and we know that they’ll be good games. I feel confident in our ability.”
Rounding out the 13-team field are China’s Rui Wang, Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont, Finland’s Oona Kauste, Germany’s Daniela Jentsch, Japan’s Seina Nakajima, South Korea’s Minji Kim, Latvia’s Iveta Stasa- Sarsune, Russia’s Alina Kovaleva and Scotland’s Sophie Jackson.