KINGSTON, Ont. – It should be a very interesting two days of curling at Leon’s Centre.
For the first time in the short history of the championship round, the top eight-ranked rinks in the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) will battle it out to make the playoffs at the Tim Hortons Brier.
The week has been compelling to say the very least. Multiple highlight-reel game winners, astronomical shooting percentages and a few surprising results created an exciting five days of curling – and the fun is just getting started.
In the championship round, records carry over and each team will play the four teams that qualified from the opposing pool. The top four overall make the page playoff.
Let’s look at how it all breaks down.
Sitting pretty
Alberta (Brendan Bottcher)
Record: 7-0
Schedule: SK, CA, ON, WC
Alberta is the only undefeated rink heading into the championship round at the Brier.
They’ve downed heavyweights like Brad Gushue and Brad Jacobs with their skipper shooting 100 per cent twice already. Alberta is the hottest team coming in and appears driven to avenge their back-to-back Brier finals losses.
Going 2-2 should be more than enough to lock in a spot for this weekend’s final four.
The six-win group
Wild Card (Mike McEwen)
Record: 6-1
Schedule: NO, MB, NL, AB
Mike McEwen and his rink from Winnipeg seem like a completely different squad from a year ago when they represented Manitoba as the hometown team in Brandon, Man.
They’ve fully embraced their identity as Team Wild Card after beating Glenn Howard last Friday and are far more comfortable in their second campaign as a foursome.
Still, Team McEwen will need to beat some good teams over the next couple days to advance.
Newfoundland and Labrador (Brad Gushue)
Record: 6-1
Schedule: CA, ON, WC, SK
It’s no surprise Gushue is back in the Brier playoffs.
Last year, the 39-year-old lost to Bottcher in the page 3 vs. 4 after allowing a four-spot late in the game.
Gushue says he’s amazed at some of the high-pressure shots that have been made this week.
“There’s a lot of guys that are making it when they need to be made and it’s fun to watch,” Gushue said earlier this week. “I can only imagine at home watching all these shots being made. You’ve probably come off your coach a number of times this week.”
Saskatchewan (Matt Dunstone)
Record: 6-1
Schedule: AB, NO, MB, NL
Saskatchewan might be the most interesting team coming into the championship round.
Must See: Dunstone nails runback triple to score four and steal match from B.C.
Watch as Saskatchewan skip Matt Dunstone makes no mistake on a brilliant runback triple in the 10th end to score four and rob British Columbia of a win in Draw 6.
After dropping their opener to Wild Card and a very slow start against New Brunswick, the Regina rink have turned things around on a dime. They have a real shot at getting Saskatchewan to the Brier playoffs for the first time since 2015 and just the fourth time since 2000.
The province hasn’t won the Brier Tankard since 1980.
“The reason we put this team together is to win a Brier for Saskatchewan,” third Braeden Moskowy told TSN.ca earlier this week. “We want to be those guys that end this 40-year drought. It’s way too long for all the great players that have played for Saskatchewan and out of Saskatchewan. That’s ultimately the goal, but we’re nowhere close to that right now. We just got to keep on doing what we’re doing, chipping away, and hopefully keep making some shots as we can here.”
Dunstone’s championship schedule is daunting and will probably need to find at least two wins to make the playoffs or a tiebreaker.
In the hunt
Manitoba (Jason Gunnlaugson)
Record: 5-2
Schedule: ON, WC, SK, CA
Jason Gunnlaugson has become a star in his first Brier.
Must See: A Manitoba Miracle!
Jason Gunnlaugson scores three in a dramatic 10th end to win the game for Manitoba.
The 35-year-old Winnipeg native is no stranger to other pro curlers, but the casual fan is experiencing the skip known as “Gunner” for the first time and they like what they’re seeing.
They beat Northern Ontario on a 10th end measure and battled close with Alberta, but also had to fight tooth and nail to down lower-ranked squads in Quebec and Prince Edward Island, thanks to a shot now known as the Manitoba Miracle.
Team Gunnlaugson will be put to the test over the next four games and we’ll see if they have what it takes to stay in contention.
Canada (Kevin Koe)
Record: 5-2
Schedule: NL, AB, NO, MB
Kevin Koe went undefeated last year en route to his fourth Canadian championship.
Must See: Koe hits brilliant triple to steal win for Canada
Watch as Kevin Koe attempts a daring triple takeout with his final shot and nails it, handing the Wild Card team their first loss and stealing the win for Canada.
He’ll need to find that form once again to set a record as the first skip to capture five Tankards.
Third B.J. Neufeld knows the competition is about to get much harder.
“It’s going to be a battle,” said Neufeld. “As a curling fan, I think they’re going to be treated to something pretty special over the next couple days. There are teams battling for their lives. It should be amazing curling.”
Team Koe haven’t hit their stride yet in Kingston, which could be a scary fact for the rest of the field heading into the championship round.
The 45-year-old veteran has missed the playoffs just once in eight appearances at the Brier.
Able to run the table?
Ontario (John Epping)
Record: 4-3
Schedule: MB, NL, AB, NO
The home province team rattled off three consecutive wins to start the 2020 Brier, including an opening victory over the defending champs on Saturday. Then things went south.
Team John Epping dropped three in a row and then needed to battle back from a 5-1 deficit against Northwest Territories in the round-robin finale just to get to four wins and salvage a spot in the championship round.
“It was a slippery slope for those three games and then to rebound,” said Epping Wednesday night. “Especially down 5-1, that shows the character of this team and we could have easily folded and just kind of hung our heads down. We really want to be here for the next couple days, especially for the crowd.”
They’ll need the Kingston crowd to get behind them as the winning four in a row seems like the only route to the playoffs.
Northern Ontario (Brad Jacobs)
Record: 4-3
Schedule: WC, SK, CA. ON
The No. 1 ranked team in curling probably needs to run the table to make the playoffs.
Teams Jacobs was just on the wrong side of the inch to start the national championship, dropping three of their first four games.
The slow start might just be a reversal of fortune the boys from Sault Ste. Marie need. Since winning the Brier in 2013, Team Jacobs has a round-robin record of 46-9, but a 1-7 showing in the playoffs.
“There has been lots of time where it’s been the other way. We built the momentum in the beginning and started to lose some steam as the week went on,” second E.J. Harnden said. “We’re taking a positive approach. Everyone is playing very well.”
Team Jacobs have already won three straight Grand Slams this season. What’s winning four consecutive games at the Brier? Jacobs and company are far from done.
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.
