Alberta's Kevin Martin became the first team at the Tim Hortons Brier Canadian men's curling championship to lock up a playoff berth Wednesday afternoon in Winnipeg.
Martin's Alberta team — third John Morris, second Marc Kennedy and lead Ben Hebert — knocked off Newfoundland/Labrador's Brad Gushue 8-7 in Draw 13 play at the MTS Centre to improve to 8-0.
That guaranteed one of the four available berths in the Page playoff system for the two-time Brier champ.
"Well, you lose this one, and the one-two game is going to be real tough to get to," said Martin, who scored deuces in the second, fourth and sixth ends in the victory. "Nine and two, 10 and one will get you there, so so far, so good. Step one was eight and three (to make the playoffs), so that one's safe. Now, we're trying to get to that one-two game, and we're close."
Newfoundland/Labrador dropped to 5-4 with the loss and needs some help to make the playoffs.
Saskatchewan's Pat Simmons, meanwhile, secured a tiebreaker spot at the very worst with an 8-5 win over New Brunswick's Peter Gallant. The victory pushed Saskatchewan's record to 7-1, its best start since Regina’s Randy Woytowich opened the 1991 Brier in Hamilton with a 6-1 record. He went on to lose to Martin in the final that year.
B.C.'s Bob Ursel kept his playoff hopes alive with an 8-7 extra-end victory over Nova Scotia's Brian Rafuse. The win pushed B.C. to 4-4, and it will need to win its final three games to make a possible tiebreaker.
Also, Quebec's Jean-Michel Menard picked up his third win in nine outings, beating Peter Gallant of P.E.I. 8-2. The loss dropped the Islanders' record to 3-5.
Ontario's Glenn Howard (7-1), Manitoba's Kerry Burtnyk (5-3), Northern Ontario's Eric Harnden (2-6) and Chad Cowan of the Yukon/Northwest Territories (2-6) all had byes in Draw 13.
Play at the the Tim Hortons Brier resumes Wednesday with the 8 p.m. draw on TSN.
On Thursday, draws are scheduled for 9:30 a.m., 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.; all three draws will be on TSN, while curltv.com also will show the morning draw. |
