CALGARY — Brendan Bottcher knew it would require a near-flawless performance to deny Kevin Koe a fifth career title at the Canadian men’s curling championship.
He was just about perfect Sunday night to finally end a three-year silver streak at the Tim Hortons Brier.
Bottcher shot 97 per cent to lead his Alberta side to a 4-2 victory. Koe’s Wild Card Two conceded in the 10th end with no options available to score a game-tying deuce.
“It’s just such a good feeling when you know you’ve worked so hard and then you come out and play your best at the biggest game there is,” Bottcher said. “That’s just really a cool and a special feeling.”
With about 30 seconds left on the clock, Koe and teammates John Morris, B.J. Neufeld and Ben Hebert briefly studied the house. Facing three stones and with no real chance at pulling even, they decided to call it.
Bottcher and teammates Darren Moulding, Brad Thiessen and Karrick Martin enjoyed a celebratory team hug by the side of the sheet in the odd silence of the spectator-free Markin MacPhail Centre.
“I don’t remember life ever not dreaming and wanting this,” Moulding said. “It’s my whole life’s work. It’s kind of overwhelming actually. But this is what I always pictured for sure.”
The Edmonton-based foursome made their Brier debut together in 2017 and remained intact through three stinging final losses.
“Losing in this game sucks, for lack of a better word,” Bottcher said. “It really sucks. It sucked the first time, it sucked the second time and it sucked just as much the third time.
“We all show it differently but (the win) just means so much to us and I think that was really on display here tonight when we closed it out.”
The teams blanked five of the first six ends, with Alberta forcing Wild Card Two to a single in the third.
The game finally opened up in the seventh end as Koe flashed a stone after it picked. He also missed a double-takeout to set up Bottcher for a draw for three.
Bottcher kept the pressure on by forcing Koe to make a tough double-takeout against five to salvage a single in the eighth. Bottcher missed a double for two in the ninth and settled for one.
“If there was ever going to be a guy that was going to catch you late, it was going to be Kevin,” Bottcher said. “I really thought we hung on, we did what we needed to do and we were able to capitalize on that.
“That’s something that we should be proud of.”
Down two with hammer, Koe was unable to build the end he wanted for the necessary pair to force an extra.
“We just didn’t take advantage,” he said. “They had two misses in 10 and we should have been able to come out of that with at least a deuce. Capitalizing on your opportunities when there isn’t many out there (is key).”
Koe finished at 74 per cent and his team shot 84 per cent overall. Alberta threw at 91 per cent.
The Brier was the second of seven competitions to be held in the Canada Olympic Park bubble. The Canadian women’s championship kicked things off last month.
Earlier in the day, Bottcher hit a game-winning angle-raise for a 6-5 semifinal win over Saskatchewan’s Matt Dunstone.
Bottcher removed the Saskatchewan stone from the button and stuck around to score two points for the victory.
“Obviously it was a super-difficult shot,” Bottcher said. “But those are the moments we’re playing for, for those kind of shots.”
Koe, from Calgary, defeated Bottcher in the 2019 final. He represented Alberta that year and Bottcher’s side was Team Wild Card.
The field was expanded from 16 to 18 teams for this season to accommodate teams that didn’t get a chance to compete in provincial/territorial playdowns due to the pandemic.
Bottcher was selected to represent Alberta and Koe got the second of three wild-card entries based on the Canadian rankings.
Koe finished first in the championship pool with a 10-2 record. Dunstone and Bottcher were next at 9-3.
Dunstone was hoping to reach his first career Brier final after winning bronze last year.
“There’s nothing to hang our heads about,” he said. “It was a world-class game. They played awesome and we played awesome.
“The curling gods were wearing a blue sweater today. That’s all there is to it. It totally stinks but this isn’t the end of us.”
The last Saskatchewan team to win the Brier was skipped by Rick Folk in 1980.
Koe continues to share the record of four Brier wins as a skip with Ernie Richardson, Randy Ferbey and Kevin Martin.
He was also trying to become the first hometown winner since Brad Gushue won in St. John’s, N.L., in 2017. Gushue defended his crown the following year and also won last season.
Bottcher will represent Canada at the April 2-11 world men’s curling championship in the same venue.
His team already has a berth in the Olympic Trials in November so the spot for the Brier win will be made available at a pre-trials event this fall.
Bottcher’s rink earned $100,000 of the $300,000 total purse. Koe’s team earned $60,000 for the silver.
Bottcher was named the winner of the Ross Harstone sportsmanship award earlier in the day. Thiessen was named a first-team all-star along with Gushue, Saskatchewan third Braeden Moskowy and Wild Card Two lead Ben Hebert.
Koe was named to the second-team all-star list with Neufeld at third, Canada second Brett Gallant and Northern Ontario lead Ryan Harnden.
Manitoba-based Kerri Einarson is the reigning Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion.
She’ll represent Canada at the April 30-May 9 world women’s curling championship. That event is slated to be the seventh and final event in the Calgary bubble.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 14, 2021.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps will begin their post-season campaign with a play-in game against the Timbers in Portland on Wednesday.
The ‘Caps (13-13-8) ended the regular season with a 2-1 loss to Real Salt Lake on Saturday and finished eighth in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference standings.
The eighth and ninth spots from each conference meet in a play-in game this week, with the winner going on to face the No. 1 seed in the first round of the playoffs.
Each eighth-place team was set to host the play-in game, but Vancouver announced Friday that its home stadium, B.C. Place, is not available, so the club will cede home-field advantage to Portland (12-11-11), the ninth-place team.
The ‘Caps and Timbers split their three-game series during regular-season play, with each side taking a win, a loss and a draw.
The first round of the MLS playoffs is set to begin next weekend.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2024.
SANDY, Utah (AP) — Diego Luna scored a tying goal in the 73rd minute and Real Salt Lake added another on an own goal for a 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday night to set a single-season club record for points.
Real Salt Lake (16-7-11) secured the No. 3 spot in the Western Conference and will face Minnesota in the first round of the Major League Soccer playoffs. RSL reached 59 points this season, topping the 2012 team with 57.
Vancouver (13-13-8) will play the Portland Timbers on Wednesday in a wild-card game for a chance to play top-seeded LAFC.
Luna settled a long cross from Braian Ojeda before taking four touches to slot home a shot inside the far post for his eighth goal of the season.
RSL went ahead in the 83rd when Vancouver goalkeeper Isaac Boehmer misplayed a lofted ball that rolled into the back of the net.
Vancouver midfielder Ryan Gauld opened the scoring in the 58th to become the first player in club history to produce multiple seasons with at least 10 goals and 10 assists.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Juan Soto’s arrival last winter was supposed to be that move that pushed the New York Yankees back to the top.
They’re one step away.
Soto hit a three-run homer with two outs in the 10th inning and the Yankees advanced to their 41st World Series — and first in 15 years — by beating the Cleveland Guardians 5-2 in Game 5 of the AL Championship Series on Saturday night.
Baseball’s biggest brand is going back to October’s main stage.
Soto, who was acquired in a seven-player trade from San Diego in December, pushed the Bronx Bombers into position with one big swing.
This was why he came, for this moment and for so many more.
“We’re right where we belong,” said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who pulled off the deal for Soto.
The Yankees will try to win their 28th title against either the New York Mets or Los Angeles Dodgers. Game 6 of the NL Championship Series is on Sunday at Dodger Stadium.
In the third consecutive tight game in three nights at Progressive Field, Austin Wells walked with one out in the 10th and Alex Verdugo followed with a grounder to Guardians second baseman Andrés Giménez, whose soft toss to the bag was dropped by rookie shortstop Brayan Rocchio for an error.
Hunter Gaddis struck out Gleyber Torres and had Soto in a 1-2 count before New York’s stylish outfielder sent a shot over the wall in center. Soto danced down the first-base line and paused to celebrate with his teammates before circling the bases.
“I was just saying to myself, `You’re all over that guy. You’re all over that guy. He ain’t got anything,’” said Soto, who moved alongside his manager, Aaron Boone, as the only New York players to homer in an extra-inning, series-clinching win.
Luke Weaver got the final three outs with Lane Thomas flying out for the last one, which was caught by Soto.
“We get to play for a world championship,” Boone said. “That’s pretty sweet.”
The 25-year-old Soto is eligible for free agency this winter, and Yankees fans chanted “Re-sign Soto!” during the postgame festivities. He’s expected to get a contract upwards of $600 million, and his heroics in Game 5 may have raised his price.
Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer and was named ALCS MVP as the Yankees took care of the Guardians in five games. It wasn’t easy.
New York won the first two at Yankee Stadium without much fanfare or any major drama. However, it was a different story in Cleveland as all three games at Progressive Field were nail-biters.
The Guardians rallied to win Game 3 on two, two-run homers in their last two at-bats, and the Yankees held on to win Game 4 after blowing a four-run lead.
“This was a rollercoaster and we were able to just keep punching back,” Stanton said. “We know there’s much more work to do and it’s only uphill from here and we got to get it done.”
Cleveland just didn’t have enough and a surprising season under first-year manager Stephen Vogt ended just short of a World Series. The franchise remains without a title since 1948, baseball’s current longest drought.
“There’s only one team that gets to win the last game of the year, and unfortunately it’s not going to be us,” Vogt said. “But we accomplished a lot as a group. We got better. We worked extremely hard. I couldn’t be more proud of this group. We just didn’t get quite as far as we wanted to.”
The Yankees are back in the World Series, back where their fans expect them to be every year.
The club’s 82-80, fourth-place finish in the AL East last season led to some “soul searching as an organization” during the winter, according to Boone, who has been widely criticized but is one of just three managers to take New York to playoffs in six of his first seven seasons.
While the team’s core stayed mostly intact, getting Soto in a blockbuster trade on Dec. 7 — New York sent five players to San Diego for the three-time All-Star — accelerated the team returning to title contender.
“That was a good day,” Boone said with a laugh before the game.
Stanton’s 446-foot rocket into the left-field bleachers tied it at 2 in the sixth and chased Tanner Bibee, who had struck out New York’s dangerous DH in his first two at-bats and held the Yankees scoreless for the first five innings.
It was Stanton’s fourth homer in this series — his third in three days — and his 16th in the postseason, moving him into fourth place on the club’s career list behind Bernie Williams (22), Derek Jeter (20) and Mickey Mantle (18).
Before the game, Boone was asked what makes Stanton so good.
“He can hit it harder than anyone, first of all,” Boone said. “So there’s the physical nature of what he does that’s different than just about everyone in the world.”
But Boone went on to compliment Stanton’s discipline at the plate, “his approach, his process, how he studies guys.”
“There’s something that he does when he gets familiarity with people on top of being very physically gifted,” Boone said.
The Guardians took a 2-0 lead in the fifth off Carlos Rodón on Steven Kwan’s RBI single with two outs. But Cleveland missed a big chance for more, leaving the bases loaded when Lane Thomas grounded out on the first pitch to him from Mark Leiter Jr.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Yankees: LHP Nestor Cortes (elbow strain) had another successful live batting practice session. The reliever remains on track to join the Yankees on their World Series roster. Boone said Cortes would throw again early next week. Cortes went 9-10 with a 3.77 ERA in 30 starts.
