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Bottcher, Koe advance to clash in Brier's 1 vs. 2 Battle of Alberta – TSN

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LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – The page playoff matchups are set at the Tim Hortons Brier.

The usual suspects own three of the four spots with 2022 Olympic bronze medallist Brad Gushue, 2021 Brier winner Brendan Bottcher and four-time Canadian champion Kevin Koe all making the second weekend. The surprise of the week has been Colton Flasch and his Saskatchewan rink as they will round out the page playoff field in Lethbridge.

Alberta will take on Canada in the 1 vs. 2 game after their wins in the page seeding round Friday night while Saskatchewan will take on Wild Card 1 in the 3 vs. 4 contest. Both games go on Saturday with the semi-final and final set for Sunday.

Let’s take a closer look at the matchups and all the storylines that set up to be a fun weekend of elite level curling an the Enmax Centre.

The last rink standing will wear the Maple Leaf at the World Men’s Curling Championship in Las Vegas from April 2-10.

SK (Flasch) vs. WC1 (Gushue)

3 vs. 4 Game – Saturday at 3:30pm ET on TSN 1, TSN Direct and the TSN App

‘It’s a gut punch on top of a kick in the groin’: Gushue on losing Nichols

After a loss to Canada, Brad Gushue discusses losing Mark Nichols for the rest of the Tim Hortons Brier after testing positive for COVID-19 and how tough it will be to be the last team standing as a result.

If Gushue and the B’ys from The Rock are going to capture their fourth Brier Tankard since 2017, they’re going to have to do it a man down.

About an hour before Friday’s page seeding clash against Bottcher, Gushue’s rink announced on Twitter that third Mark Nichols is done for the tournament after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier in the day.

“Despite taking the necessary precautions, Mark Nichols unfortunately tested positive for COVID-19 today,” the release said. “Mark is experiencing mild symptoms and is currently isolating. Due to event protocols, Mark will no longer be able to compete in the Tim Hortons Brier. The team will play the rest of the event with three players. We wish Mark all the best and a speedy recovery.”

Gushue, Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker will now finish off the event by themselves as they did not bring an alternate with them to Lethbridge this week.

The first test will come Saturday afternoon in the 3 vs. 4-game against Saskatchewan’s Colton Flasch after they dropped a close 4-3 decision to Team Bottcher Friday night. Of course, playing with only three players comes with some massive disadvantages, including only having one sweeper.

“We’ve done everything we can in the last few months to avoid this and we’re one of the only teams here that were wearing masks and doing all this stuff. And we get caught in the playoffs when we were playing great,” said Gushue after the loss. “It’s a gut punch on top of a kick in the groin.”

Team Gushue, who are fresh off winning bronze at the Winter Olympics in Beijing last month, were the only rink in Lethbridge to get through round-robin play with a perfect 8-0 record as Wild Card 1.

Gushue has said all week that his expectations are lower compared to Briers of year’s past because of the recent Olympic exhaustion, but the results paint a different picture. The St. John’s foursome had yet to lose entering Friday’s action with their skipper shooting a Brier-best 90 per cent. Nichols was best among vices at 88 per cent.

The future of Gushue’s team is very much up in the air, so going out on top would a dream ending for this group who have been together for the past eight years. And playing shorthanded, it might just be their toughest task yet.

Must See: Saskatchewan skip Flasch delivers with incredible triple takeout

Saskatchewan skip Colton Flasch makes a fantastic triple takeout against Alberta’s Kevin Koe.

On the other side of the sheet, it will be Saskatchewan’s Team Flasch, who have been one of the more intriguing teams at this year’s Brier.

After dropping a tough 9-8 decision to Alberta and his former skip Koe in the opener last Friday night, Flasch have been zoned in, winning eight of his next 10 games.

They’ve defeated their provincial rivals, Team Matt Dunstone, in the round-robin finale Thursday to earn a tiebreaker and then they beat them again in said tiebreaker to make the playoffs.

In the biggest surprise of the week, they thumped Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs Friday afternoon in the playoffs, 10-3 in just seven ends, as Flasch shot an impressive 88 per cent. They lost to Team Koe, 7-2, in the page seeding round.

Flasch says he’s starting to feel like he’s in the zone.

“Oh yeah. The draw weight has been there all week and now I’m hitting a little better. It’s been good,” he said after beating Jacobs earlier Friday.

Flasch, a construction company owner from Saskatoon, played second for Team Koe in Alberta for two seasons, highlighted by capturing his first Brier Tankard in 2019. Following a disappointing run as Team Canada at the 2020 nationals, Flasch was cut in favour of John Morris.

The 31-year-old was able to build his very own Saskatchewan-based team after Catlin Schneider was let go from Team Dunstone and the Marsh twins – Kevin and Daniel – found themselves without a team after their skip Kirk Muyres joined Dunstone’s rink.

Their first season together in 2020-21 was more or less a wash due to COVID-19. This season they’ve played in nine events, highlighted by an appearance in the Vesta Energy Curling Classic final and a win over Dunstone in the provincial championship last month. They also went 4-2 at the Home Hardware Curling Pre-Trials.

This is Flasch’s sixth career Brier, but first as a skip. He says he learned a lot from his short time with Koe.

“Playing with Kevin Koe I’ve learnt over the years that you don’t have to be too good too early. And learn the ice. Every game even if you lose, make sure you learn something from that game. Move forward. We’ve been doing a great job of that,” said Flasch. “It definitely helped playing with Kevin.

“These games are lot easier after playing in them and knowing what it takes to win. Just all the knowledge and being comfortable in these games helps as well.”

Schneider says that Koe-like calm presence is needed in a skip since the pressures of the position are so intense.

“I mean it’s nerve-wracking. You’re the guy who has to make the final shot in front of a ton of people, in front of all of Canada and North America watching, right,” said Schneider. “So, it’s not the easiest thing to do and people who haven’t been there don’t quite understand that feeling. So, my job is to just calm him down and relax, get him in the right head space and bring his confidence up because he’s a great player.”

There’s skip pressure and there’s the pressure of bringing home the Tankard to Saskatchewan. Of course, the curling crazed prairie province hasn’t won the Canadian men’s curling championship since 1980 when Rick Folk, Ron Mills, Tim Wilson and Jim Wilson stood atop the podium.

Dunstone was close the past couple years with back-to-back semi-final appearances but wasn’t able to get over the hump and snap the 40-year plus drought.

Flasch and company still have a long way to go to accomplish that feat.

“Oh, I think they’re very hungry. I’ve heard the question about 100 times this week. So, I’m not here to necessarily win for Saskatchewan, I am obviously, but I’m here to win for our team and if that happens great.”

CA (Bottcher) vs. AB (Koe)

1 vs. 2 Game – Saturday at 6:30pm ET on TSN 1/5, TSN Direct and the TSN App

Tim Horton’s Brier: Page Qualifier – Saskatchewan 2, Alberta 7

Kevin Koe and Team Alberta beat Saskatchewan’s Colton Flasch to earn a spot in the 1-2 Page Playoff game at the Brier.

Saturday’s evening feature pits the defending champions looking to make their fifth straight appearance in the Brier final against a squad stacked with talent playing in their last Brier together.

It’s also the Battle of Alberta and a rematch of last year’s final. So, safe to say it will be a good one.

We know Bottcher and Team Canada are going to be hard to beat in the playoffs as they’ve proven in the past quadrennial.

Despite a mid-season lineup change, cutting Darren Moulding in favour of alternate Patrick Janssen, Bottcher and his team haven’t missed a beat in Lethbridge. They went 7-1 in the preliminary round with their only loss coming to Koe, the team they beat in the final last year inside the Calgary bubble for their first national title.

Bottcher, 30, is shooting a solid 85 per cent while Janssen has fit in well, also shooting 85 per cent, which is fourth best among thirds.

It seems like whatever you throw this team’s way, they find a way to deflect it. Last Saturday night in their second game of the event, Bottcher and company were most definitely the “road team” despite wearing Team Canada colours and being from Edmonton, just five hours north of Lethbridge. That was because they were facing New Brunswick’s James Grattan with hometown favourite Moulding in their lineup.

There were plenty of cheers for Moulding and just as many heckles for Bottcher, but that didn’t faze the unflappable skip as Team Bottcher slid to a 6-4 win.

“I thought it was a curling knowledgeable crowd and ultimately it was always going to be a battle,” a relaxed Bottcher said after the game. “So, I guess I came into this game expecting it and I was actually glad it lived up to that hype. It was a good venue here tonight.”

We know that this is the final year for Koe, BJ Neufeld, John Morris and Ben Hebert with the foursome slated to disband in some form by season’s end.

Three-time Brier champ Morris, 43, is expected to step away from the men’s game and maybe only focus on playing mixed doubles going forward for the foreseeable future.

In Lethbridge, Team Koe has not looked like a rink that is set to break up.

Their 47-year-old skipper is second among skips in shooting percentage at 87 per cent as he’s searching for a history-making fifth Brier Tankard.

As we’ve come to know over the years, there’s Tour Kevin Koe and then there’s Brier Kevin Koe. In nine prior appearances at nationals, the native of Calgary has made seven finals, winning four of them.

“He’s amazing at the Brier. His record speaks for that alone,” Hebert told TSN.ca this week. “He cranks it up as the event he really cares about. He likes to peak at these events and I like the way he’s playing right now. It looks like he’s doing it again.”

The winner advances straight to Sunday evening’s final while the loser has another chance to dance and will play the winner of the 3 vs. 4 game in the semi-final.

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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October 18, 2024

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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October 17, 2024

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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October 17, 2024

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

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