Fowler besting the best

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This article was published 08/03/2012 (4960 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SASKATOON — Rob Fowler beat two elite skips in the Manitoba provincials to get here to the 2012 Tim Hortons Brier.

On Wednesday night, he beat another one to prove he belongs here.

Fowler — who beat reigning world champion Jeff Stoughton and world No. 1-ranked Mike McEwen to capture the Manitoba men’s curling championship last month — defeated 2010 world champion Kevin Koe of Alberta 8-5 in a game with critical playoff implications for both squads.

“You know when you’re playing one of the top five teams in the world,” Fowler said Wednesday night, “that you’d better bring your A-plus. It gets you excited before the game and it definitely pushes you to work hard to get into the zone.”

The win over Alberta — coupled with a 10-5 Manitoba win over the Territories earlier in the day — improved Manitoba’s round robin to 6-3 and puts them alone in third place heading into the final day of the round robin today.

Manitoba finishes with games this morning against a hopeless Saskatchewan team that has lost seven straight and then this afternoon against a Northern Ontario squad that has won three straight and is tied for the fourth and final playoff spot with the Territories at 5-4.

In a week in which Fowler has struggled to make the big shot, he made plenty of them on Wednesday against Alberta and the Territories and looked much more like the poised and polished skip that took apart Stoughton and McEwen in Dauphin than the wide-eyed Brier rookie skip that he’s looked at times here.

“Rob stepped up to the plate big-time today,” said Manitoba third Allan Lyburn. “He was good all day and fabulous against Alberta tonight. That’s the way we’ve always known him, so it’s nice to have him back.”

Deuce

To be sure, Fowler’s still not at the level he was on the final weekend in Dauphin — he failed to hit paint, for instance, on a draw to the eight-foot for a deuce in the third end against Alberta.

But then no one here has been putting up particularly solid numbers this week on ice conditions that have been inconsistent from draw to draw, sheet to sheet and often even from end to end.

“I have to compliment my team to no end,” said Fowler. “Their patience and their ability to stay positive no matter what the last shot of the previous end really showed in that game.”

The loss to Manitoba dropped Alberta to 7-2 and puts them alone in second place, a win ahead of Manitoba but a win behind first place Ontario, who are 8-1.

Ontario’s Glenn Howard has already clinched a berth in Friday night’s Page playoff 1 vs. 2 game, where the winner advances straight to the Brier final.

Alberta would clinch the other 1-2 berth with a pair of wins today over Nova Scotia and Ontario. But should Alberta lose one of those games and Manitoba wins both of theirs, Manitoba would get the berth in the 1-2 game because of Wednesday night’s victory over Alberta.

There still are landmines in front of Manitoba, however. Saskatchewan hasn’t won since Sunday but has had, predictably, loud and boisterous crowds cheering their every shot, something that will no doubt be in evidence again this morning against Manitoba.

But the larger threat for Manitoba is Northern Ontario, who are still very much alive in the playoff hunt and finally playing at the level that had many pundits picking them to be among the contenders here on the final weekend.

“We played two awesome games today as a team,” Northern Ontario skip Brad Jacobs said after an 11-4 thrashing last night of Nova Scotia. “We’re still in it and hanging in there.”

LOOSE HAIRS — The Manitoba win over Alberta snapped a three-game losing streak for Fowler when his team has been the feature game on TSN at this event. There was an asterisk, however. Manitoba-Alberta was actually televised on TSN-2, to accomodate a hockey game being broadcast on the main network… Alberta has lost two of their last three games after opening at 6-0.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

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