Alberta’s Kevin Martin Wins Tim Hortons Brier
Posted March 16, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
After a game of mistakes Alberta’s Kevin Martin made the shot he needed in the final end, drawing to the button for a 5-4 victory over defending champion Glenn Howard of Ontario at the final of the Tim Hortons Brier on Sunday.
As Martin’s final shot came to rest on the button, Martin’s rink of John Morris, Marc Kennedy and Ben Herbert pumped their fists in the air and hugged each other on the ice.
The final was a match of the two best rinks in the world but it failed to produce the excitement and drama many fans had hoped. The teams plays a cautious game and most of the points came off mistakes from the skip with the final stone.
“We were all sweating out there and it was high pressure,” said Martin. “It was difficult to make good shots.”
The win marked Martin’s third Brier victory but his first in 11 years.
“It feels great,” said the Edmonton skip.”We had the hammer coming home and luckily we had the four-foot to go for.
“The young guys are really excited.”
Howard was attempting to become the eighth skip in Brier history to win back-to-back titles.
“I thought it would come down to the last shot but I thought it would be better curled,” Howard said. “It was really tricky out there tonight.
“There was a lot of missed shots on both sides.”
He said both teams suffered from picks on the ice, where stones picked up debris.
“We had about four or five picks,” said Howard. “We didn’t have any all week. It’s so frustrating when that happens.”
Morris, who curled 90 per cent, was named the most valuable player of the final.
Howard used a takeout to score two points in the ninth end. That tied the game 4-4 but gave Martin the last rock in the final end. Martin faced two Alberta stones but made the winning draw.
Martin’s rink advances to the world championships April 5-13 in Grand Forks, N.D.
.Martin leads the World Curling Tour money list with $111,000 in earnings. Howard, the defending world champion, is second at $95,795. Martin is an Olympic silver medallist.
Cowbells rang and Alberta flags waved in the crowd of 9,223 at the MTS Centre. Some fans wore yellow Sou’westers, others cowboy hats. One woman, standing beside her pregnant friend, held up a sign saying “baby’s first Brier.” There even was an Elvis in the building.
Total attendance for the week was 165,075, the seventh-highest in history.
Both skips made costly errors.
Martin wanted to blank the second end with a takeout, but his rock hit another stone and stayed in the house. He took the point for a 1-0 lead but gave up the hammer.
On the next end Howard had a chance to draw for two but his shot was light, leaving him with a single and a tied game.
Martin drew for two in the fourth end after Howard failed on a comearound attempt.
In the fifth Howard wanted to blank the end with a takeout but his rock didn’t roll out of the house leaving the score 3-2. The same thing happened to Martin in the seventh, giving Alberta a 4-2 lead.
Howard blanked the seventh and eighth ends.
Martin finished the round-robin with a perfect 11-0 record. The last team to go undefeated at the Brier was Alberta’s Randy Ferbey in 2003.
Alberta advanced to the final after beating Saskatchewan’s Pat Simmons in the No. 1-versus-No. 2 game Friday night. Simmons had a chance to win the game on his final shot but his rock caught some debris on the ice.
Howard and his rink of Richard Hart, Brent Laing and Craig Savill were third after the round-robin with a 9-2 record. They defeated B.C.’s Bob Ursel in the 3-versus-4 game Friday, then needed an extra end to beat Simmons in Saturday’s semifinal.
Martin beat Howard 7-4 in the round-robin.
Martin’s rink dominated the Brier’s first all-star team. Martin was named the all-star skip, with Morris the third and Kennedy a unanimous selection as second. Ontario’s Savill was selected as lead.
It was the third consecutive year Howard, the defending world champion, played in the final. He lost in 2006 to Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard and defeated Olympic gold medallist Brad Gushue of Newfoundland & Labrador last year.
The Brier loss also prevented Howard from securing a berth among the final four teams playing in the Olympic qualifying event for the 2010 Winter Games.
The Brier uses the Page playoff system. The team that finishes first in the round-robin play the second-place team in one playoff game. The winner advances directly to the final. The loser goes to the semifinal and plays the winner of the third and fourth-place teams.
Since the system was introduced in 1995, three teams playing in the 3-versus-4 game have gone to the final but none have won.
