REGINA—March 5, day 4 at the Montana’s Brier. Another wild one.

This can’t continue … can it?

Draw two of the day had four mercy games. Three games ended after eight ends. Red-hot skip Tyler Smith for PEI had another strong outing versus the rookie team out of Quebec skipped by Jean-Michel Arsenault—which may have secured an Islanders berth in the playoffs. They’re now 4-1.

Saskatchewan, skipped by Mike McEwen, over Alberta skipped by Aaron Sluchinski (more in a minute).

Team Canada and the Brad Gushue crew defeated the fans’ second-favourite team from Nunavut skipped by Shane Latimer.

And then another Brier surprise with Nova Scotia’s Matthew Manuel taking down Kevin Koe’s Alberta crew after nine ends of play. The four-time Brier champion Koe is now 1-5, while his brother Jamie’s Territories squad is 4-1.

The talk in Section 109, where I sat with The Max (my ginger wife) for the last half of the game, was Koe’s inability to manufacture a playoff spot with respect to his young horses. The fans behind us must have been from Calgary as I overheard, “I guess we’re going back home early. A tough go for Kevin with his young guns. No curler by himself is superman. Could be fun to keeping watching this team develop in the next couple of years, though.”

The Ghosts of Elphinstone Street! This was The Max’s first game of the week at the Brandt Centre. After end number one against Sluchinski the Green Jackets were down 3-0. She said, “Maybe I should have stayed home.” I replied “We’re on sacred ground, comebacks are the nature of where we sit.”

McEwen and team then cracked a three in the second and wound up outscoring the young Albertans 11-2 the rest of the way.

After Sask had tied it up I headed down to the media section. I get to sit beside Curling Canada comms queen and the recent Ontario Scotties champion skip, Danielle Inglis.

I mentioned to her that the location of the Brandt Centre—which is next door to the Roughriders’ Mosaic Stadium—was built on the other side of Elphinstone Street, and the famous Taylor Field. As such, this locale is home to more fourth-quarter comebacks in all of professional football then any stadium ever … and the new Mosaic Stadium adds to that number yearly.

As I was sharing this important tidbit, McEwen followed the three-ender with four more in the fourth end.

The 100 years-plus Callie Curling Club was once located—for close to half a century—where the new Mosaic Stadium stands. Think of how many granite comebacks took place on those 12 sheets over their long history. I wonder if there’s a Guinness world record for comebacks in a one-block radius? The Roughriders, the junior hockey Pats and a slew of curling games.

Speaking of the old Callie, this is the location where two-time world junior champion Paul Gowsell from Calgary ordered his pizza while playing a cashspiel game against the notoriously slow Larry McGrath team of Kindersley, Sask.. 

The Gowsell team was hospitable enough to share the extra-large pepperoni, bacon and mushroom pizza with McGrath’s team somewhere around the eighth end. On the ice surface.

According to curling lore McGrath thought Paul needed a washroom break, and Paul’s response was “I went to order a pizza.” Gowsell must have had the confidence to buy the extra-large on his meagre budget as they went on to win the ’spiel.

In watching this game, one had to feel for Team Sluchinski. I honestly lost track of how many ticks and jams they suffered after their three-point lead. It was crazy. The Ghosts of Elphinstone still show up more often than not.

The evening draw had four reasonably close games with Thunder Bay’s Trevor Bonot and teammates Mike McCarville (husband of Krista), Jordan Potts (husband of Sarah) and Kurtis Byrd win a huge game against B.C skipped by Regina product Catlin Schneider.

This close battle came down to a near-impossible last rock miss by Schneider to move Northern Ontario to 5-1 and put them on the cusp of one of the six final playoff spots. B.C dropped to 3-3 and on the verge of elimination.

Both Brendan Bottcher of Alberta and Reid Carruthers of Manitoba—skipped by Brad Jacobs—kept pace to go to 4-1. Bottcher beat Matt Dunstone’s Manitobans 10-5 to drop down to 3-2. Dunstone was two down coming home and trying for all his worth to get to the extra-end, but Bottcher’s team played a brilliant 10th end with freezes and staggered rocks making life difficult for Dunstone to get his deuce.

Team Carruthers, the Manitoba champions, simply wore down New Brunswick skipped by James Grattan 7-3. James is in his 16th Brier appearance and you know he’d love to be in on this year’s Brier upsets.

In the final game of the night, Ontario’s Scott Howard kept his playoff hopes alive and moved to 3-3 after knocking off Thomas Scoffin of Whitehorse and his Yukon team.

Briers and Scotties often say Wednesday is moving day with the pools starting to separate the contenders from the rest of the pack. Tuesday seemed like a bit of a precursor for Wednesday’s action.

The Brandt Centre is feeling like it’s growing a personality for the week. The 2018 Brier was okay, but this feels different. Probably because the home team is in contention. The fans cheer loudly in anticipation whenever Saskatchewan makes a big shot or walks off the ice after a victory. It has that Mosaic Stadium kind of vibe.

Northern Ontario’s fan base is small but loud, and gets the attention of the rest of the attendees.

Team BC seems to have the whole village of Kronau, Sask. and surrounding area all in attendance plus a few that have flown in from the west coast. This is where Catlin and the curling Schneiders all come from.

The Kronau Curling Club is worth a visit as they have more Brier, Scotties and National Juniors per capita than possibly any other rink on the prairies. They may have more even without the per capita. Their upstairs lounge celebrates the tradition.

I think our curling-savvy readers will recognize a few of these names like the Schneiders (seven or eight Schneiders have gone to nationals), Holland, Kalenchuk, Fahlman, Vollman, McEachern, Leippi, Englot as residents or members of this club, and this is just off the top of my head.

Kronau is about 28 kilometres east of Regina. Their reputation bleeds into Regina as Jan Betker, the third for Sandra Schmirler, threw her first rocks in that rink. Her parents knew of the club’s reputation and figured it would be a good place for her to learn the ropes.

As this Brier voyage continues, I’d like to say thank you to my volunteer eyes and ears walking around the Brandt Centre. Francis Walsh is one of Regina’s newest residents via Stephenville, NL and he’s a four-time Newfoundland and Labrador Masters champion. The other is Bob Zeigler, my Regina historian who confirms certain facts … like the toppings on that famous Gowsell pizza.