Gunner needs minor miracle

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This article was published 12/03/2021 (1865 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jason Gunnlaugson is hoping to navigate his team to higher ground at its second Canadian men’s curling championship in as many years.

A freefall on Friday night won’t help matters.

Fresh off a stellar performance against Ontario in the afternoon, Team Manitoba was blasted by Team Canada on the evening draw in the Calgary bubble.

Defending champion Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., trounced the Morris-based crew 12-2 in just eight ends to wrap up Day 8 of the Brier at spectator-free WinSport Arena.

Manitoba dropped to 6-4 in the standings — midway through the eight-team championship round — and will require a miracle on ice, of sorts, to qualify for Sunday’s three-team playoff round.

“We just got outplayed pretty badly, right from the start. It’s a lonely building when you’re down that many. We kept playing and tried to learn stuff about the ice because we assume it will be similar conditions (Saturday). That’s all you can really do. It’s no fun,” Gunnlaugson, 36, told the Free Press, moments after the contest.

“Team Gushue played great today …they were ready from the first end and we weren’t, and they had control from there.”

Four-time Brier champion Kevin Koe and his Wild Card 2 team also split a pair of games but is in much better shape at 8-2, tied at the top with Glenn Howard’s Wild Card 3.

Koe was stung by an 7-6 extra-end defeat to Brendan Bottcher in a battle of Alberta but rebounded in the evening with a 10th-end count of four to knock off Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs 8-5.

“Losing a good battle to Brendan, those happen. You have to reset quick,” said Ben Hebert, Koe’s veteran second. “Tough two-game day with Bottcher and Jacobs, two of the best teams in the world, and 1-1’s not bad.”

Howard, skipped by Wayne Middaugh, downed Saskatchewan’s Matt Dunstone 9-5 but then fell 10-8 to Ontario’s John Epping.

Dunstone, a Winnipeg product, also bounced back with a huge 8-7 triumph over Bottcher at night.

Saskatchewan, Canada, Ontario and Alberta all share 7-3 records, while Jacobs is 6-4.

The first-place team following play today makes the Sunday final, while the second- and third-place teams meet in the semifinal. 

Gushue, a three-time Brier champion who beat Bottcher in last year’s finale, earned the hammer on Manitoba after pre-game draws to the button and immediately pounced, posting a huge three-ender. Gunnlaugson missed an opportunity for a multiple score in the second end but couldn’t execute and surrendered a steal of one.

“That’s a hard hill (to climb). I had a hard shot but a makeable one to get us back in the game but didn’t make it, and from there it kind of spiralled,” he said. 

Gunnlaugson threw just 54 per cent, a full 30 points lower than his performance in a 7-6 win over Epping hours earlier. Veteran second Matt Wozniak stepped aside to give fifth Jacques Gauthier — the 2020 world junior men’s champion from Winnipeg — some Brier action with the game against Gushue well out of reach.

Back-to-back victories today against Kevin Koe (Wild Card 2) at 1:30 p.m. and Saskatchewan’s Matt Dunstone at 7:30 p.m. are essential.

Gunnlaugson, a professional gambler for a time and a great believer in curling analytics, maintains it’s still reasonable to hope for a logjam situation and potential tiebreakers.

“If we win two (Saturday), I think we’ll end up in some kind of mess. That’s my feeling right now about it. All we can do is go out and play well and wins as many games as we can,” he said. “That’s been the goal from the start.”

Gunnlaugson has a chance to improve on the 5-6 record he amassed as a Brier rookie a year ago in Kingston, Ont.

He insisted his teammates — Wozniak and third Adam Casey, both with far more battle scars than he, and rock-solid lead Connor Njegovan — deserve a heap of the credit. And the fact they’re running with the big dogs — administering a sharp rap to the snout of more than a few — will provide an enduring boost of confidence for the squad.

“We’re more experienced now. Having Matt join the team, he’s played basically perfect but also he brings a lot of experience in how to manage those intense moments. That’s something I’m learning,” Gunnlaugson told reporters earlier in the day. “I’m a pretty new skip relative (to) everyone else out there that has skipped five to 10 more years, or more, than I have at a high level.”

For now, Gunnlaugson is savouring every moment of the unique bubble experience and relishing the chance to face many of the finest teams the sport has to offer.   

“It’s beautiful to be playing out there. You’re looking across the sheets and it’s a who’s-who of the best curling teams in the world competing for a Brier,” Gunnlaugson said. “If we can keep the attitude we had (Friday morning), keep playing the way we did, we’re going to have a chance to win every game.”

Wozniak has been worth his weight in gold for Team Manitoba this week at the Brier, his first competitive event since officially joining Gunnlaugson in late March 2020.

Wozniak said the team’s sole mission is to go down fighting.

“We’re just trying to win as many games as we can,” he said. “We’ve put ourselves in a spot where every game’s a must-win to stay in the tournament.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell