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Tim Hortons Brier 2013 champion skip Brad Jacobs: The Iceman returneth
The Iceman last won a Brier for Northern Ontario when Brad Jacobs was about ready to enter this world. Just a few months after that fabled championship was etched in the books of curling history, Jacobs arrived - in June of that year - with obviously no earthly idea that he would grow up to be the man who'd ultimately end the drought that was just about to begin.
Al Hackner's 1985 win over Pat Ryan is no longer the region's last national men's curling championship. His nickname, "The Iceman" will forever be his and his alone, although you'd be forgiven if you were tempted to tap Jacobs once on each shoulder with a curling broom and dub him worthy of the title. While you're at it, a knighting of curling's gentleman, Jeff Stoughton, would also be in order.
Manitoba's Stoughton, a three-time Brier champion, wins raves again for his sportsmanship as he capped Northern Ontario's 11-4 win by performing two of his patented spin-o-ramas in the ninth end, with the outcome no longer in doubt.
But this was Jacobs' night. His week. His longtime dream come true, as you could easily see as he began to tear up during his post game interview.
The 27 year old skip from Sault Ste Marie fully and completely emerged as a team leader at this Brier, reaching lofty heights in a pressure packed weekend of do or die skipping. He shot 90% in the 3 vs 4 game against Brad Gushue. Did that again in the semi-final game against the giant, Glenn Howard. In the final, Jacobs shot 88%, while his team did even better, amassing a collective 95%.
Like Rachel Homan at the Scotties, Jacobs led his (mostly) young and very talented team with a cool demeanor and steely-eyed determination. And great shooting.
In the fourth end of his Brier final win, Jacobs could have easily drawn for two and forged a 5-2 lead. Instead, he showed the ferocious confidence and killer instinct that his provincial counterpart had shown two weeks before at The Scotties. A thin-as-you-can pick of a Stoughton stone gave his team a three spot and a 6-2 lead. “I think that’s more our style a shot,” he told TSN at the mid-game break.
Indeed. The Soo crew likes a good ol' swashbuckling shot and can execute them with great regularity. The difference this year seems to be that they can also make the touch shots and those that put their opponents under pressure so often. In the sixth end, Jacobs took out two Manitoba stones and rolled across the rings to neatly bury behind a wide corner guard. "That just isn't fair" said Russ Howard, from his perch in the TSN broadcast booth. Fair it wasn't as Stoughton was forced to play a very difficult come around tap that innocently sailed past Jacobs' stone and out the back, leaving the Northern Ontario skip with an easy draw for two and an 8-4 lead.
Had to wonder if Jacobs was ever going to break through and take the throne although you'd never have doubted his desire and determination to do so. Bursting onto the Brier scene in Halifax in 2010, Northern Ontario - with Jacobs and the Harnden brothers, E.J. and Ryan - ran up a 9 and 2 record and a playoff spot. In 2011 they were back, with a 7 and 4 record but no playoff spot to show for it. Regrouping and re-dedicating in 2012, they came up well short at nationals with a 5 and 6 record and might have been in jeopardy of fishtailing out of sight.
Instead, a change to the team's line up was made, with 34 year old vice Ryan Fry coming over after serving as Gushue's third the previous four seasons. Fry, who became the second man to represent three different provinces at a Brier (he'd also played for Manitoba as part of Stoughton's team in 2007) turned out to be just the tonic the team needed to put them over the top, with the Harndens providing as solid a front end combination as there is in curling. Fry came in at 94% shooting in the win over Stoughton, while E.J. Harnden shot 99% at second and brother Ryan was a perfect 100% at lead.
While Jacobs' team is not exactly changing the way the game is played the way Homan's team is, they are revolutionizing what it takes, physically, to compete at the highest level.
“They’re raising the bar in the fitness level that’s for sure," said TSN's Linda Moore, during the broadcast. "Their physical preparation has been superb and it is paying off.”
That's no small consideration. Stoughton's team fancies itself a contender to represent Canada at the Olympics in Sochi, next year. Howard's feels the same as well. Kevin Martin's too. Those and other challengers to the reigning Canadian champions will have to decide whether they can match up well with the Northern Ontario team, physically. That may well be the definitive gap between them now. Previously, Jacobs' teams had been able to lay claim to the physical high ground but not the strategic and emotional ones.
Their romp over Manitoba is the punctuation mark on a week that clearly showed the boys from Northern Ontario are no longer just Brier beefcake.
Iceman The Second? Jacobs has earned it. At the very least, he's ensured that the memories of Northern Ontario's last Brier win are crystal clear now, as opposed to the dusty recollections of a day long, long ago that had been reduced to a weak echo, like a forlorn moose call rattling around in the rafters of Edmonton's Rexall Place.
The Iceman returneth.
