KINGSTON, ONT. — As his last rock slid down the ice, Brad Gushue threw both arms in the air and held them up there while the crowd roared so loud you might’ve mistaken Kingston for his hometown of St. John’s, N.L., just for a second. Gushue pumped both fists repeatedly, then he slid down the ice to celebrate with his teammates while Tina Turner’s “(Simply) The Best” blared over the speakers.
Gushue and Geoff Walker, Brett Gallant and Mark Nichols met for a four-man bearhug on the blue carpet. Then Gushue, the newly-minted three-time Brier champion, ran over to the sideboards and started blowing kisses at a phone, cued up for a Facetime with his wife and two daughters, who were watching from home. He was excited to see them, but it was “agonizing” too, he said, because he wanted to hug that phone, wanted to hug them. He will tomorrow.
“They’ll be the first people I see when I get off the plane,” he said, grinning, a gold medal draped around his neck. “I can’t wait.”
But first, the celebration. On Sunday at Leon’s Centre, Gushue’s rink from Newfoundland and Labrador won the eastern-most province’s third Brier title in four years, and in clinical fashion, with a 7-3 win over Team Alberta.
“Uuuh, friggin’ awesome,” is how it felt, a grinning Gushue said, after he’d hoisted that massive Tankard Trophy over his head. “I don’t know if you can quote that or use that (oh, we will) but it feels absolutely incredible.”
Absolutely incredible describes the way Gushue played, too: He curled Sunday night at a near-perfect, 97 per cent. All week, he says it felt like in this stacked field, a half-shot miss might’ve cost you a game. “Today, I don’t really think we missed that half-shot,” he said.
“To win in this field which I believe is probably the strongest field I’ve certainly played in, in the 17 Briers, and to come through and play the game we played today, that’s special, to play our best game in the finals.”
It wasn’t the barnburner you expected in this final. Alberta came into the championship game with a sizzling Brier-best record of 11-1, but Sunday night wasn’t Alberta skip Brendan Bottcher’s night. This time wasn’t the charm for the 28-year-old, who has now lost in three straight Brier finals.
Alberta third Darren Moulding held back tears and could barely get his words out afterwards.
“I’m starting to get older, so I don’t know how many times I’m gonna be able to get back here,” the 37-year-old said. He wiped under one eye to stop a tear from falling. “I’m proud of the guys. Just wish it would’ve turned out different. I know we can play a lot better than that.”
Alberta has shown it can, but Gushue and Co. owned this final from start to finish. “The first two ends, it was a dream start,” as Newfoundland’s second, Gallant, put it. And it pretty well continued that way.
Newfoundland capitalized on three early errors in the first three ends, including a steal of one in the first and a double takeout for three in the third end, both times after Bottcher’s shots came up against guards. Gushue had a controlling 4-1 lead into the fourth, and the fans here went absolutely berserk — there were a lot of Newfoundland and Labrador flags waving in this crowd. Through three ends, Gushue was curling at 100 per cent. Bottcher was at 50 per cent.
“I expected him to come out guns a-blazin’,” Gushue said of Bottcher, after it was all over. “With the last two years of experience we were ready for a big game and we got three misses, really, in each of the first three ends. Once we went up 4-1, it felt like we had all the momentum then. It was just a matter of not taking the foot off the gas, and we didn’t do it, we kept it down.”
Newfoundland did. Nothing came easy for Alberta in this game, while Gushue and Nichols in particular hit shot after shot. Gushue greeted most of his stunners with a nod, an eyebrow raise and maybe a little comment, like: “Good.”
“Man everyone on our team played so solid,” Gallant said. “Anytime they had a slight chance, we just snuffed it out. All weekend long really, they [Gushue and Nichols] were clinical, so good.”
Gushue called it “almost a perfectly executed game.”
And what a place to put one of those together. To know what it means to even get to play on this stage, in the Brier final, just watch Gushue after he scored the last point to win the semifinal earlier Saturday. He stayed down in his crouch in the middle of the ice, hand over his mouth in disbelief and awe and excitement. Gushue didn’t move for a couple of seconds. And that says it all: This is a guy who’s made it to this final four times in the last five years.
“Who knows how many more of these you’re going to get to play,” the World No. 3 said, soon after, foam roller resting at his feet (he’d use that later). “These are really, really hard to make. To make four in five years, yeah, I feel blessed, spoiled, lucky.”
And of course, to win three in five years, he has to feel all of those things, but also really, really talented and good. The field this year was something to behold: The top eight standing for the championship round were Canada’s top eight, and all ranked among the world’s top 13. That’s bananas, that field. And to win it, Gushue had to get through an Alberta team of lead Karrick Martin, second Brad Thiessen, Moulding and Bottcher, who were near-perfect up until Sunday.
“Couldn’t have asked for a better effort,” Gushue said.
For the effort, Gushue’s rink earns $105,000, a spot in next year’s Olympic trials, nearly $170,000 in Sport Canada funding over two years, and they’re Team Canada next time the Brier rolls around. It’s huge. To boot, the Brier’s Tankard Trophy is beautiful (look out, Lord Stanley) and their names are etched on there for a third time. A pair of Mounties paraded it out onto the ice just before the eighth end, for all to see.
The first time they won it, Gallant says each of them got to take it home and hang out with it for a couple of days. “It’s unbelievable,” he said, after snapping a shot of Nichols with the hardware. “I grew up dreaming of that as a kid. The first time is amazing and this time is almost just as special. Lots of names that I really look up to on that trophy, so to have myself on there, three times now with this team, it’s simply amazing.”
At the thought of the best part of winning this national curling championship, Nichols looked up and shook his head.
“Man, it’s just the history of the Brier,” he said. “I remember watching [fellow three-time Brier champion] Pat Ryan in ’88 and ’89, you know, you watch Kevin [Martin] and Randy [Ferbey] and all these guys who’ve got their names on this trophy. Now we’ve got three of ‘em? Like, I never imagined.”
“Just the knowledge that you beat every team in Canada, that’s the best part,” Gushue added, with a big grin. “There’s so many good teams. There’s just that pride of, you know, we did this.”
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
