Birchard advances after big upset

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This article was published 01/02/2018 (3158 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINKLER — After spending most of the week watching his sister Shannon thrive in the national spotlight, it was Daniel Birchard’s turn to grab a little bit of curling notoriety Thursday morning.

The 25-year-old Winnipeg dentist skipped his Pembina team to a major upset of No. 3-seeded Jason Gunnlaugson at the Viterra Championship, beating the Granite team 8-5 Thursday morning to earn a spot in the A-side qualifier this morning. Birchard can advance to the playoff round with another win.

Birchard, the event’s 19th seed, admitted he had modest expectations for his team, which also includes third Kelly Fordyce, second Brody Moore and lead Andrew Peck.

“I’m not too excited, yet,” said Birchard, surprised he knocked off the battle-tested Gunnlaugson. “But we’ve done better than I thought we would do. Honestly, we just wanted to win one game so we would make it to the second day. We didn’t really have expectations to make any rounds of the playoffs. We knew he would be the toughest team to play. We’ve played them all individually over the years, so we know them really well.”

Gunnlaugson was quick to give Birchard his due.

“Yeah, he shouldn’t (be surprised),” Gunnlaugson said. “He beat us, like, three years ago (at the provincials). First end we had an easy draw against a million. And the rock stops, three feet out of my hand it just hits a stone and stops and they ended up beating us in the first game.

“It happens. You lose an early one. You’ve just got to work harder. We’re feeling great.”

Birchard, Fordyce, Moore and Peck are longtime friends and teammates who have only recently rededicated themselves to the game.

“We played a few events (this year),” Birchard said. “As a team, we’ve played together for 15 years and we took the last three or four years off — we were all kind of working on our careers. So this is the first year back playing competitive stuff, so we played a few spiels here and there — nothing too, too great.”

Team Birchard is scheduled for today’s 8:30 a.m. qualifier matchup against Travis Bale of Fort Rouge, who beat St. Vital’s Darryl Friesen 9-3.

“We don’t want to get too overconfident, because then that would be our downfall,” Birchard said. “We’re here mostly to have fun. I don’t expect us to make it to the very end. It’s a growing experience.”

When he’s not on the ice, Birchard will probably be glued to his television set and the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Penticton, B.C., where his 23-year-old sister Shannon is playing third for the Jennifer Jones team. Shannon Birchard was drafted to replace Kaitlyn Lawes, who is representing Canada at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the mixed doubles event.

“She’s doing great, fantastic,” Birchard said. “We’re just struggling to play 50 per cent and she’s kicking butt out there, super exciting to watch her play.”

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Did he tune in for Wednesday night’s Jones-Kerri Einarson showdown, which resulted in a 9-4 loss for Jones?

“I watched half of the game and then I shut it off… a little stressful… I’m sure they’ll pick it up today,” said Birchard, before further explaining his mindset. “It’s difficult watching, even from a distance. I don’t want to put too much pressure on her. I know she’s having so much fun out there, so it’s good to watch from a distance. Team Manitoba had a rough day yesterday, but they’ll pull it together.”

EARLY UPSETS: some early Day 1 exits by highly regarded teams are not uncommon at the provincial championship. Wednesday was no exception, with Braden Calvert and Sean Grassie both eliminated with two losses.

“Pretty surprising,” said Team Simmons lead Rob Gordon, whose No. 4 team advanced to this morning’s qualifier against Assiniboine Memorial’s William Lyburn. “Surprising to see Calvert out so early, and Grassie, the six and the 10 seed. And Jason (Gunnlaugson) losing a game — it seems they haven’t lost a game in months. I’m sure they’ll come back. It speaks to the depth of Manitoba. You can come out and play the three seed and give them a good game and beat them. Across the board there’s lots of good teams, and you can’t take them lightly.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @sawa14