Marathon man: Fowler settling in

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/03/2012 (5184 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SASKATOON — And with that, Manitoba’s Rob Fowler can finally take a breath.

And so too can Manitoba curling fans.

Sunday night, Fowler completed what was nothing short of a Brier mini-marathon here over the weekend that saw his Brandon foursome play four games on the first five opening draws of the Canadian men’s curling championship.

The results were heartening for the rookie Brier skip as Fowler rattled off his second and third consecutive wins on Sunday — 8-7 over Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue and 8-3 over PEI’s Mike Gaudet — to improve to 3-1 and grab a share of second place with Nova Scotia’s Jamie Murphy heading into a quiet day today that will see Manitoba play once, this afternoon against BC’s Jim Cotter (1-2).

Put it all together and it’s reason for curling fans to also breathe a sigh of relief, particularly after a spotty Manitoba performance on Saturday — which included an ugly loss to a Quebec team that has yet to win again — had more than a few folks wondering if this Fowler team was destined to go into the books as yet another of the rural Manitoba men’s teams that occasionally win the province only to then splatter spectacularly once they reach the national stage.

Instead, this Fowler foursome — third Allan Lyburn, second Richard Daneault and lead Derek Samagalski — have appeared to curl a little better and gain a little more confidence with each new game, a formula they used to great effect in winning the province in Dauphin last month.

By the time the final weekend rolled around there, Fowler and his teammates were a model of cold efficiency and their hope this week is the same formula for success is now again in play.

“We bounced back really well after that first loss,” said Samagalski. “That’s huge. Thank God it’s not a single knockout at the Brier. You don’t like to lose ever, but we came back really strong after that. We’re really happy with that and now we can concentrate on the next couple games.”

All this optimism, however, has to be tempered by the challenges still in front of them. Manitoba had the good fortune of playing relative Brier lightweights in Quebec, New Brunswick and PEI in three of their first four games and a 3-1 record after the opening weekend was the minimum they were expected to be if they’re going to be a credible threat.

The really heavy lifting for Manitoba begins Tuesday when they take on Ontario’s Glenn Howard and it won’t get any easier on Wednesday when they play Alberta’s Kevin Koe.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Thursdays

Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter.

Sign up for Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Alberta is alone in first at 3-0 heading into today, while Ontario is 2-1 after a 10-6 extra end loss to Jamie Koe’s Territories team Sunday. Regardless of Howard’s hiccup against the Territories — “You play average,” Howard said last night, “and you’re going to lose” — the conventional wisdom this week is the path to a Canadian championship is going to go through both Ontario and Alberta at some point.

Fowler is a rookie skip at the Brier, but he curled at three previous Briers as second for Jeff Stoughton and he said that one of the lessons he learned was about pacing yourself at this event.

“The thing I took from my experience with Jeff is that if you come out on the opening weekend and overshoot it from an adrenalin standpoint — live and die with every shot — you’re going to have a bit of a letdown later on.

“I think we’ve built some momentum here. And I think we can elevate our game even further. That was maybe an A-game (Sunday against PEI). But I think we have a few A-pluses still out there for us.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca