Martin’s Alberta rink ‘almost done’ at Brier
Third Morris says hometown rink may need to run table to reach playoff round
EDMONTON — Kevin Martin’s Alberta team is in jeopardy of missing the playoffs after only four games at the Tim Hortons Brier.
Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs thumped Martin 8-1 in only seven ends Monday afternoon to drop the four-time Canadian champion’s rink of third John Morris, second Marc Kennedy and lead Ben Hebert to 1-3.
“We’re on the brink. We’re right on the edge of the old iceberg. We’re almost done,” said Morris. “We pretty much can’t afford to lose another game because our last game is against Ontario (Glenn Howard) and we know that’s going to be a battle. If we can somehow get into that game with only three losses, then we’ve got a sniff.
“So we’ve just got to find a way to turn it around and stay real positive and become the team that we know we can be.”
British Columbia’s Andrew Bilesky remained winless at 0-4 after falling to Saskatchewan’s Brock Virtue (2-3) by a 4-2 count in the afternoon draw. Bilesky’s foursome from New Westminster had the night off, and will face Brad Gushue of Newfoundland and Labrador (5-0) and Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard (4-1) on Tuesday.
Most teams at the Canadian men’s curling championship consider eight wins as the magic number during the round robin to earn a berth into the playoffs on the weekend, with seven wins sometimes good enough to get into a tiebreaker.
With that in mind, Martin has to run the table to finish at 8-3, including his final round-robin game Friday night against Howard, who is off to a perfect 4-0 start after trouncing Nova Scotia’s Paul Flemming 10-2 on Monday afternoon.
Howard said his team of Wayne Middaugh, Brent Laing and Craig Savill is playing a little better early in the Brier than it usually does.
The only team with a better record than Howard is Gushue, who beat Jacobs 9-8 in an extra end in a showdown of undefeated teams to improve to 5-0. Jacobs fell to 4-1.
Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton downed Menard 7-6 in the afternoon to move to 3-1. Stoughton had a comfortable 6-2 lead after five ends, but had to make an open double takeout with his final shot to win the game.
Quebec scored three in the first end against Prince Edward Island’s Eddie MacKenzie (0-5) en route to an 8-5 victory in the evening draw.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s James Grattan (2-3) had to make a pressure hit in the four-foot against three Saskatchewan stones in the 11th end after blowing a 5-0 lead after three ends to beat Virtue 9-8. The loss dropped Saskatchewan to 2-3.
Jamie Koe of the Northwest Territories/Yukon improved to 3-2 by defeating Flemming’s 0-5 Nova Scotia team 9-6.