KAMLOOPS, March 2….Edmonton’s Kevin Koe finally slayed the dragon…in the form of rival Kevin Martin, taking the men’s final of the Strauss Canada Cup, 6-5, Sunday at the Interior Savings Centre.

It was the first time that Koe had beaten Martin in five finals of various events.   But this victory was a sweet one.  It may have been ordained or he may simply have been due.

A member from each team drew to the button to determine hammer to start the game and this time Koe’s team (the rock was thrown by fourth rock tosser Blake MacDonald) won.  “When you play those guys, that’s huge.  I don’t think I’ve ever won a (pre-game) draw against him in a big one.”

With the victory, the Koe team of third Blake MacDonald, second Carter Rycroft and lead Nolan Thiessen thus earned a spot among the 16 teams eligible for the 2009 Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials, which will determine Canada’s representatives for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

“Oh, it feels awesome,” said Koe. “I think that was our fifth or sixth final of what I consider a major event and, you know, we’ve lost them all. I think four of them were to Kevin, so to actually beat him in the final, that makes it even more special.”

Today’s Strauss Canada Cup final was a tight one. After a blanked first end, the teams traded singles and were knotted at two at the fifth end break.  Koe got a deuce in the sixth end, then after exchanging singles again, Martin tied the game at 5 with his own pair in the ninth. 

In the 10th end, Martin, a two-time Cup winner, two-time Brier winner and Olympic silver medallist, was facing two Koe counters, one biting the button.  Needing a steal to win, he was forced to try a last rock angle raise tap to be shot rock.   But he was wide and heavy, as the rock slid by the four-foot, handing the win to Koe, who didn’t have to throw his last stone.

“I thought he’d make it for sure,” added the 33-year-old Koe.  “He had a lot of options. If he’d made it, we would have had a hard shot.”

Koe, who won Section A with a 4-1 mark, also defeated Martin, 7-3 on Friday morning.  But that was Martin’s last loss before today, as he fashioned a five-game winning streak, beating Jeff Stoughton twice, then Pat Simmons to secure second place in Section A. 

He then defeated Glenn Howard on a steal in the Page 2 vs 2 game, 7-6, before ousting Brad Gushue, the B winner, 8-2 in Saturday’s night semi-final.  Martin was hot, but today he ran into an equally hot and solid team.

“We just never got the hammer back,” said Martin.  “We played really good the last few games.   Kudos to them — it was about time they won one. You know, they’ve earned it. They’ve been in so many finals of big events lately and I feel good for them.”

In addition to the Trials pool entry, the Koe team also earned $25,000 for the victory, gets a berth into the 2008 Continental Cup in Camrose, Alberta, December 18-21 as members of Team North America and will return as the defending Canada Cup champion when the event moves to Yorkton, Saskatchewan next year, March 18-22. 

Overall, Koe banked $28,200, including $800 for each of four round robin wins.  Martin picked up $15,000 for finishing second, plus another $1,600 for two round robin wins, for a total of $16,600.  Brad Gushue of St. John’s finished third, earning $13,200 while Coldwater’s Glenn Howard was fourth, banking $8,200.

It was also the third Cup win for Koe’s second Carter Rycroft, who was a member of the Martin team when winning the 2005 and 2006 editions.

Koe’s team is having a good year.  They were third behind Glenn Howard and Martin on the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) prior to the Strauss Canada Cup. But their goal is to be one of four teams to get berths directly into the Trials (by winning three specified events, by being the CTRS leader in two of three seasons, by being the overall CTRS points leader over a three-year-period or a two-year period).
 
“We don’t want to be playing in that 12-team event,” continued Koe.  “This is a huge points event and you’ve just got to keep accumulating them because that 12-team event is going to be a bit of a crapshoot and if you can help it, you don’t want to be playing in it.”

-30-