This one ... will be tough to beat

The Canadian men’s curling championship has spun legendary stories over the years, but nothing can touch the tale authored this year by skip Brad Gushue and his Wild Card team.

Imagine winning the Canadian men’s curling championship with just three players. Wow.

That’s exactly what the Olympic bronze medallists did Sunday after a pressure-packed 9-8, extra-end win over Kevin Koe’s Alberta in the Brier final at the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge.

The win lifted Gushue into a tie with Koe, Regina’s Ernie Richardson and Edmonton’s Randy Ferbey and Kevin Martin as skips with four national men’s titles. But only Gushue had to win his fourth crown with one hand tied behind his back, as longtime third Mark Nichols cheered the team on from COVID-19 isolation in his hotel room.

“Once Mark went down it was a huge long shot for us, but to be honest I think it kind of inspired us,” said the 41-year-old Gushue, who limped into the last three games of the playoffs with only second Brett Gallant, lead Geoff Walker and coach Jules Owchar for support.

“It gave us some extra energy and we knew we had to be at our best,” said Gushue. “Brett and Geoff, the way they adapted to the new positions, was incredible. It’s pretty amazing. I never thought this would happen when Mark went down.”

Indeed, after a Page playoff 3/4 victory over Saskatchewan’s Colton Flasch on Saturday, Gushue downplayed his team’s chances, going so far as to say “we’re realistic about what’s going to happen (Sunday).”

Two more wins, in the semi over Canada’s Brendan Bottcher and the final over Koe, were not on his mind—not publicly, at least.

With their victory complete, the three team members hugged and celebrated on the ice, turning to the camera with thumbs up and shouting, “This one’s for you, Mark!”

For a team that has given increasing public indications that this is likely to be their last season as a unit, the win means they will compete in the world championship in Las Vegas, beginning Apr. 2.

“Honestly when Mark got sick, I thought it’d be a really tough way to end eight years without him on the ice. So it means a lot if this is our last season that we’re going to go out with all four of us side by side,” said Gallant, fighting back tears. “Sorry. Mark’s one of my best friends and I'm really looking forward to getting on the ice with him again.”

The Gushue squad’s Brier journey came on the heels of their bronze medal performance at the Beijing Olympics—an event they finished exactly two weeks to the day before the 2022 Brier began.

The team used its power as the Olympic squad to elbow their way into the Brier draw, becoming the first men’s team to compete in an Olympic Games and Brier in the same season.

Gushue carefully managed down expectations for the team going into the event, but those began to grow again as the team’s undefeated run stretched deeper and deeper into the round robin.

Gushue previously won Canadian titles in 2020, 2018 and 2017 (all with the same team members), twice representing Newfoundland & Labrador and once as Team Canada. The victory in Lethbridge also marked the first time a Wild Card team has won the Canadian title.

With the win, Gushue also ties the record for most Brier victories as a skip.

“What’s more important is the four of us have now won four (titles), and there’s only one other team that has done that. And that’s Randy (Ferbey’s team),” said Gushue. “So to put this team in that group, you know, I haven’t been shy about my thoughts about this team being one of the greatest of all time and this really kind of just cements us there with them.

“We’re in the argument with all the other teams. I feel pretty confident in our place, and for us to solidify with the fourth (win) is pretty awesome.”

It was a strongly-played final between teams that have met many times over the years. Team Gushue scored a pair of three-enders in the third and sixth ends that eventually spelled the difference.

Koe, trailing 8-6 in the 10th, almost won it after positioning his stones to score three, but Gushue made a superb raise takeout with his final rock, leaving Koe a draw for two to force the extra-end.

Gushue, who shot a sparkling 93 per cent in the final, played a clean extra frame, and hit and stuck with the hammer to win.

Koe, backed by third B.J. Neufeld, second John Morris, lead Ben Hebert, alternate Carter Rycroft and coach John Dunn, was crushed by the loss, especially because it came in Alberta and in front of friends and family.

“I thought this one was ours to win,” Koe said. “They did a better job of making us pay (for our mistakes) than I thought we did on them. We had a chance in 10. It was looking good. But Brad made a couple of good shots. Those three-enders, we had a few misses, some were close. It worked out terrible.”

The four-time Brier champion’s team will split up following the remaining Grand Slam events in April and May. The Koe squad has appeared in three of the last four Brier championship finals, winning in 2019 and losing the final in both 2021 (to Bottcher) and 2022.