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Gushue’s historic bid for fourth straight Brier title ends in semifinals
For the first time in four years, there will be a new Brier champion.
KELOWNA — Brad Gushue stood on the dark floor drinking from his water bottle, looking at the sheet of ice in front of him where the Newfoundland skipper had just made one of the biggest misses of his hall of fame career.
Minutes earlier, the three-time defending Brier champion had a shot for the win in the semifinal at Canada’s national championship, a tap to score three points and take a back-and-forth, nail-biting Battle of the Brads classic against Alberta’s Brad Jacobs that came down to the last shot.
Jacobs figured his team had a “five per cent or less” chance to come away with the win, and he and third Marc Kennedy discussed it, like so: “It was a pretty tough one to miss.”
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Then Gushue sent his last rock in heavy and a little off, and it hit the Alberta shot stone and rolled off and left it there, and just like that it was over, a 7-5 win for Alberta.
“Hugely disappointed, and feel like I’m going to be apologizing to my teammates for quite some time after that,” Gushue said, still wearing his Team Canada jersey as this event’s defending champion.
“A lot of heartbreak for my teammates. Obviously when you have a shot to win the game and you don’t do it you feel bad for your teammates because they put me in a position to win that game, and I just overthrew that last rock, threw it six feet harder than I needed to throw it.”
Jacobs now heads to his first Brier final in a decade, where he’ll face Team Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone — the No. 1-ranked rink in the country — for the title on Sunday night. Jacobs, the 39-year-old from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is looking for his second national title after winning the Brier back in 2013.
He and his team of Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert have just a few hours before they play in a big one, and Jacobs said they’d have to find some energy after what was an emotionally and physically exhausting semifinal.
“That was a heavyweight bout,” Jacobs said. “I said to the guys several times throughout the game, there’s no place we’d rather be.”
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That Gushue had a shot to win was the product of some earlier monster shots, in a game in which he didn’t lead until the eighth end.
Jacobs took the first lead of the game in the fifth, when Gushue hit a guard and missed a takeout, allowing Jacobs to score three. That lead extended in seven when, facing a possible deuce from Gushue, Jacobs drew the button with his last for the single point, putting Alberta up 4-2.
In eight, Gushue nailed a double takeout to score three, sending this sold out crowd to their feet. The skipper pumped his fist and yelled “Yeah!” Team Canada was up 5-4, and in the driver’s seat. It seemed the writing was on the wall, and Gushue was going to earn his way to yet another final, with hammer in the 10th.
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In nine, Jacobs scored a deuce with a double takeout to take back the lead, up 6-5 heading into 10.
Gushue’s team of Geoff Walker, Brendan Bottcher and Mark Nichols set up the winning shot, with a clear path to the house for Gushue to take out Alberta’s shot stone and sit three.
“When he let it go and they started carving it immediately, trying to help it curl, all I’m thinking to myself is, ‘Just keep running straight,’” Jacobs said. “But I think Brad was just a little heavy, a little wide and maybe a little bit of adrenaline — and sure enough it just kind of coasted on by.”
“I never expected it to go by, but it ended up being a little harder than I even anticipated or even thought I threw it,” Gushue said. “So, combination of path and combination of bad throw.”
Sunday evening will mark the first time since 2021 that Brad Gushue hasn’t played in the Brier final.
All week, other curlers have been praising the skip who’s tied with Randy Ferbey for the most national titles, with seven.
“Brad Gushue is, in my opinion, the best player of all time,” as Dunstone put it. “He’s dominated this event for the last decade, it seems.”
Jacobs had this to say after losing his first matchup against the team from The Rock: “I think Brad Gushue just proved why he’s Brad Gushue.”
He was a shot away from proving it yet again on Sunday afternoon.
“I’m definitely going to put this one on my shoulders today,” Gushue said.
