Another lovely Tuesday morning – at least now I know what day it is. Did have to shake a few cobwebs from the head this morning and drag the body out of bed – seem to be getting home at 2:30 am each night. So far I am equalling my Brier attendance standards – the goal is to never get home the same day you left it…….100% so far!

A full slate of morning games today and all ended early – gave the worker bees some actual time for lunch (which has been a rarity here).

Sheet A had winless Jamie Koe up against “determined to stay in the Top 4” Jeff Stoughton. And the guys from the far north were once again struggling – except for our own Nova Scotia representative on the team Martin Gavin who scored an impressive 83%. But when your skip is playing consistent low numbers (55% in this game), great lead rocks can only count for so much.

Jamie did manage only 3 points after 7 and a crushing take of 4 in the 8th end by Jeff pretty much brought this game to an early end with a final score of 10-3.  Chalk up another win to Manitoba and Yukon/NWT stay at the bottom of the pack.

Sheet B was another blowout – Quebec’s Serge Reid was on fire against the fighting Saskatchewanites. With only 2 -1 enders to his credit, it got really messy in the 7th end and when everyone finally got out the way so we could see from the scorer’s bench, there was a smack-down take of a steal of 5 for Quebec. So now Quebec stands tied for 5th position as they head into Draw #9 against struggling PEI and Saskatchewan drops to 2 and 4.

Off to the televised game which was all Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs. With the score 5-2 after the halfway mark, there was still a game to be played by New Brunswick. James Grattan’s numbers were gradually rising as the game progressed but 2 more singles (one a steal) forced early handshakes after 8 ends with a final of 7-2. The percentages were fairly even for the two teams but Brad shot a 92%! Hard  to beat that….

And our last game on the sideboards was Ontario – once again firing on all 6 cylinders – and they simply dominated PEI at every shot. There seemed to be so many red Ontario rocks in play and even if PEI had opportunities for locking a freeze, the attempt was never perfect so the blasting caps came out and bye-bye yellow rocks. With Glenn Howard playing at 93% (and the team at 91%), PEI’s Rod MacDonald  with 48% (team total of 57%) had no hope of even mounting a comeback. So the final score of 8-2 was put on the board after 7…….and PEI stays in 10th place.

Now on to Draw #10 – hard to believe we are in the double digit draws already! Ontario took on newly defeated Saskatchewan and to be honest it looks like a close game on the scoreboard with Howard only up by 1 after the 6th end.  But you could tell by body language just who was in control of the game – Howard and the boys playing comfortably while Darrell McKee and his squad had to be performing at the top of their game to keep up. And with the cracking of a 3 in the 8th end it was game over with the end result 9-5.

Quebec and PEI went to an extra end in a very well played game by both teams. Although playing slow (in relation to the other games on ice), they managed to just have enough in the 10th. And Rod MacDonald made a dramatic crowd pleasing draw for 2 to tie and on we go to the extra. A huge missed opportunity for Roddy to suck his last shot around a Quebec rock on the top of the four foot – it JUST ticked every so  slightly on the way by with perfect weight. An open takeout and fly to win worked – that pesky back twelve Quebec rock counted for an 8-7 win.  A fun game to watch.
Sheet D saw action between Jeff Richard and Brad Gushue. Again, another close game with a 3-3 tie after 7 (2 blanked ends), until Newfoundland/Labrador cracked a nerve rattling 4 in the 8th end. There seems to be a consistent condition of meltdown by teams giving up a huge end in the latter ends after holding it tight all game. BC came back with a 2 in the 9th end but in the 10th end coming home Jeff had his opportunities to steal and just couldn’t capitalize. So Gushue goes to 5 and 1 while BC drops to 2 and 4.

The most exciting game to watch was on Sheet B between Alberta and Nova Scotia. After just 2 ends, the score was 5-0 – for……drumroll here ……. Nova Scotia!  Yes, the boys from the hometown were playing very well but what was noticeably missing from Alberta was basic shotmaking. With 6 rocks thrown by Kevin Koe, he had a mere 7 points for those attempts.  Blake and Carter were also struggling. Alberta came back with a 2 in the 4th end but drama ensued when Ian Fitzner LeBlanc made his last shot for an almost record breaking take of SIX.  The crowd went wild and Ian smilingly acknowledged the shot with broom held high. (PS. This take of 6 makes up a bit for NS former worst record – a steal of 7 by PEI against NS Shawn Adams at the 2000 Nokia Brier in Saskatoon.)

And this is where is gets interesting. The score was now 11-2 but a minimum of 7 ends have to be played at the Tim Hortons Brier. Alberta comes back with another 2 in the 6th end and a draw attempt by Ian looked perfect until it suddenly started to run straight and drifted by even the backing – providing a steal of 3 for Koe. The 8th end saw a very tricky shot for 1 by NS become another magical steal of 1.  The crowd was growing quieter by the second and our head statistician started digging up the records for what the biggest comeback mounted by a losing team ever was (down 5 by the way).

With score now 11 – 8 and 3 ends to go – well lets just say NS was getting nervous and Alberta was getting excited. But it came to a final end with Ian’s draw to the 4ft to take 2 – final 13-8. So there were several stories coming from this game – Nova Scotia’s stellar play and first win of this Brier; Koe’s meltdown on ice; huge take of 6; and the only 100% played by a lead so far for Nolan Theissen.

Draw #11 – well the crowd is good, lots of great games being played and let’s get this summary done so I can get to the Patch as The Chevelles from Lethbridge are playing tonight – time to boogie!

Off to Tuesday’s battle of the Atlantic with James Grattan taking on Olympic Gold Medallist Brad Gushue. The game was tight until the 5th end when a miscue from Grattan resulted in an unsettling steal of 5 by the on fire NL team. Although regrouping to blank the 6th and take a lonely 1 in the 7th end, Brad sealed the deal with a delicate and oh-so accurate draw to the edge of the four foot for his one and final point of the game.  The final rub-in-your-face score from Brad to James was 8-3 and Newfoundland and Labrador fans and flags alike were waving (though I think some of the wobbling fans were due to the day spent in the Patch!).  Now 2nd in the standings Brad, Mark, Ryan, and Jamie are just where they want to be as we head into the latter half of the draw.

With the Northern Ontario/British Columbia game – well, what can I say. It is difficult to see BC struggling game after game now – they have had so many missed opportunities and tough shots that the air is definitively coming out of the tires. Going into the 8th end with the score 6-3 it wasn’t game over. But Tom Shypitka’s second rock gently sailed through the house on his come around attempt. Then Jeff’s first shot is too light on a hit and roll, overcurls his target and gently wicks sideways leaving NONT still shot. Brad comes down and dumps one on the 12 foot covering shot. Jeff’s only recourse is a double and stay to count – he hits the top rock, rolls out and hands Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs yet another win. And Northern Ontario is now in the log jam at 5-2 and BC drops to the reverse at 2-5.

Manitoba and Alberta are the televised game tonight and Kevin Koe is out to make a statement and tell everyone (including his team and himself) that the significant loss to Nova Scotia was definitely out of character.  And the statement was “Don’t underestimate me” and he made it loud and clear by defeating his Capital One Grand Slam rival Jeff Stoughton ending any doubt in anyone’s mind with a final score after 8 ends of 7-2.  There was just no stopping KK in this game.

And then we go to a match-up that always brings trepidation to any Nova Scotia team at a Brier – playing the Yukon/Northwest Territories. Nova Scotia has a terrible record against the boys from the North – not sure why, but there just seems to be a jinx somewhere through the years. (Will find out the stats later – don’t want to quote without being accurate.)

And tonight’s game was special and different in a few ways. One was the jubilant team from Mayflower in Halifax after defeating front runner Alberta so resoundingly in the afternoon draw. The other being the absence of Jamie Koe from the line-up – he escaped to Saint Mary’s University where he is writing his CGA exam! No pressure there – coming to play in the Tim Hortons Brier, having to concentrate on tough shots and games and then go back to the hotel and study.  We wish him the best in the exam – may he score high – just like his team did in his absence.

So the new line-up was Martin Gavin still at lead, fifth Jon Solberg stepping in at second, Brad Chorostkowski goes to third and Kevin Whitehead heads to the skip position. And it worked. Consecutive steals of 1 in the 4th, 5th, and 6th ends (that’s called getting one’d to death) leaves the NS boys shaking their heads and they attempt a weak comeback with 1 in the 7th. The seal on the game was  determined by the defining taking of 2 in the 8th by newly crowned “Skip of the Day” Kevin Whitehead – just too much to handle! Another 7-2 final score capped off Draw #11 – a shortened one due to the blow-out nature of all the games.

Little side note – Brad Gushue was interviewed after his afternoon game by “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” - tune in next week to see how they slant Brad and curling in general.

Phew – I am finally not the last one left on the media bench and it is early – only 11pm!! Something wrong with this picture…….guess where I am going now??  Check in tomorrow on “ Moving Day”.

Meg Wallace
CurlingZone.com