1. Alberta's Kevin Martin continued to plow through his rivals like a bulldozer through a field of daisies and with whuppings of Ontario and Yukon/N.W.T. became just the 16th team in Brier hi.story to finish the round robin undefeated with 11 consecutive wins. Interestingly, sixth of the last seven teams to finish unblemished hail from Alberta (Matt Baldwin in 1957, Ron Northcott in 1969, Pat Ryan in 1985 and 1988 and Randy Ferbey in 2003 before Martin). Manitoba's Vic Peters was a perfect 11-0 in '97 before losing to Martin in the Brier final.
2. Here's the playoff shakedown: Alberta will face Saskatchewan in the Page Playoff System 1 vs. 2 game at 7 p.m. Friday with the winner advancing straight to Sunday's final and the loser sliding into Saturday's semifinal game. Meanwhile, in the 3 vs. 4 game at 2 p.m. today, Ontario will face the winner of the Newfoundland vs. B.C. tiebreaker, scheduled to begin at 9:30 this morning. The winner of 3-4 game plays in the semi with the loser heading straight to The Brier Patch. All three games will be televised live on TSN.
3. In a tribute to their resiliency, both B.C. and Newfoundland are alive today despite stumbling out of the hack with 0-3 and 0-2 starts. Next to the Martin juggernaut, Bob Ursel's left coasters head into today's tiebreaker the hottest quartet after having won seven of their last eight. And the right coasters -- that would be Newfoundland's Brad Gushue for those of you geographically challenged -- won seven of their last nine to get to the tiebreaker.
What Manitoba did
Kerry Burtnyk and his crew came off the mat in the afternoon with an impressive 7-3 thrashing of Quebec but, alas, was KO'd by Saskatchewan 8-2 seven ends in the evening draw with a spot in Friday's tiebreaker on the line. And pfffffttttt!!! just like that some of the life was sucked out of the 79th Brier with no home side playing on the weekend.
Burtnyk looked to have regained his touch against Quebec, stealing a point in the seventh, eighth and ninth ends and was leading 1-zip over Saskatchewan when he dropped his guard and was popped right in the kisser by Saskatchewan's Pat Simmons, giving up three in the fourth and then a steal of four in the fifth. That thrashing had Burtnyk dipping into the bullpen and calling on fifth-man Reid Carruthers, who replaced Dan Kammerlock at third before the two sides shook hands after two more ends. Burtnyk exited to a standing O, including the classy crew from Saskatchewan who applauded as the Manitoba skip departed.
STANDINGS W L
Alberta (Martin) 11 0
Saskatchewan (Simmons) 9 2
Ontario (Howard) 9 2
N.L. (Gushue) 7 4
B.C. (Ursel) 7 4
Manitoba (Burtnyk) 6 5
Quebec (M ©nard) 4 7
Nova Scotia (Rafuse) 3 8
Northern Ont. (Harnden) 3 8
P.E.I. (Gallant) 3 8
Yukon/N.W.T. (Cowan) 3 8
New Brunswick (Grattan) 2 9
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