TWO FOR THE SHOW!

Team Canada, Team Alberta-Bottcher advance at Montana’s Brier

Brad Gushue took another big step in defending his Canadian men’s curling championship Friday with a crucial win in the Page 1-2 qualifier games at the Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI.

Gushue, skipping Team Canada (St. John’s), shaded Team Manitoba-Carruthers (Winnipeg), skipped by Brad Jacobs, 9-7 at the Brandt Centre.

Team Canada, looking for its third national title in a row, will now face Team Alberta-Bottcher (Calgary), skipped by Brendan Bottcher, in the Page 1-2 game Saturday night. Team Alberta-Bottcher punched its ticket to the 1-2 game with a 9-7 win over skip Mike McEwen’s Team Saskatchewan (Saskatoon).

The winner of that game goes to Sunday’s gold-medal final, while the loser will drop to Sunday’s semifinal.

The two losing teams, which had captured the No. 1 positions after play in Pools A and B, had to gather themselves quickly to face opponents later in the evening in the Page 3-4 qualifiers. Team Manitoba-Carruthers has a date against Team Manitoba-Dunstone, skipped by Matt Dunstone, of Winnipeg, while Team Saskatchewan squares off against Team Northwest Territories, skipped by Jamie Koe (Yellowknife).

Losers of those games will be eliminated, while the winners will play in the Page 3-4 game on Saturday afternoon.

Both afternoon games were, as expected, tight affairs that came down to the wire.

Bottcher made a number of great shots that paved the way to the victory. He made a sensational triple with his first rock in the fourth end to turn things around and produce a deuce for a 4-3 lead. He also made back-to-back draws to cover the button in the eighth end behind cover. McEwen was left with an ultra-thin angle raise into the button, but whizzed just by.

McEwen brought his team back with two in the ninth, and with the help of an Team Alberta-Bottcher burned rock in 10 had a chance for a double-takeout to force Bottcher to throw his last rock, but couldn’t pull it off.

Team Saskatchewan, playing before the home crowd in Regina, is trying to win the Montana’s Brier for the first time since 1980.

“Winning that game gives us a little bit of breathing room, gives us some advantages here the next couple of days,” said Bottcher, the 2021 Montana’s Brier winner and the No. 2-ranked team in the world. “We battled that game, toughed it out.”

Bottcher admitted his triple was huge.

“That was big momentum wise, big on the scoreboard. It allowed us to keep dictating the play. Had we been forced that end they would have had a bit of advantage. A few of those shots in the next couple of days will decide who walks away the champion.”

Team Alberta-Bottcher third Marc Kennedy was thrilled to be going to the 1-2 game.

“I haven’t been in the 1-2 game in 15 years,” he said. “It’s exciting. Haven’t been in 1-2 game since 2009 with Kevin Martin. Everything since then has been through 3-4 game.”

Team Canada was pushed to the limit and needed some great shooting by its skipper to pull out the win. Gushue took control in the fifth end when he made a sensation slash raise-takeout on the button for three and a 5-3 lead. He also needed a draw to the four-foot with his final rock of the 10th, facing two, to nail down the win.

“It was pretty tough,” said Gushue of his slash in the fifth. “I hit that really thin and it just stuck around. I wanted to give it a good chance because after I butchered the end before (on a line call) I wanted to make up for it. It’s the type of one where you almost have to get it off the rock and potentially go right by and fortunately I got it out there and made it.”

The Sunday’s gold-medal winner will represent Canada at the LGT World Men’s Championship, March 30 to April 7, in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

The 2024 Montana’s Brier continues Friday with the two 3-4 qualifier games at 7 p.m. (all times Central).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2024 Montana’s Brier are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/

TSN and RDS will provide complete coverage of the 2024 Montana’s Brier. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule. Live coverage is also available for international streaming on TSN’s YouTube channel.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at https://www.curling.ca/?lang=fr