Tim Hortons Brier: Quebec avoids tiebreaker with upset win; Saskatchewan loss

KAMLOOPS, B.C. — So the trend continues: no five-loss team has made the playoffs at the Brier since 1996. Team Quebec and skip Jean-Michel Menard avoided that plausibility with an upset win over Team Alberta skipped by Kevin Koe. Menard made a double with his final stone to run Koe out of rocks and win the game 7-5 on the last draw of the round robin.

Menard's shot meant a lot. A minute earlier, he'd exchanged a nervous glance with third Martin Crete, after Saskatchewan's Steve Laycock had somehow thrown his final stone through three New Brunswick rocks to give up a steal of three in the tenth end and losing 9-7. "We were getting mentally ready to give up a two and having to win in overtime," said Menard in his post-game scrum. "But when [Koe] went to go play his first rock, we saw right on the side of us Steve Laycock went right through and Martin and I just looked at each other and didn't say a word."

"I got a good sniff at it. Made the double and here we are, from 3-4 to 7-4 without a tiebreaker, so that's pretty amazing and we're very happy."

The Quebec win and Saskatchewan loss means Menard will play Manitoba and skip Jeff Stoughton in the 3/4 page playoff game Saturday afternoon, while the loss for Koe means that Team B.C. will earn the top seed for the playoff round. That will also take the hammer out of Koe's hand for the 1/2 game, as B.C.'s team of John Morris and local boy Jim Cotter were the top team coming out of the round robin, both teams being 9-2 but B.C. having beaten Alberta earlier in the tournament. Koe and Morris will faceoff Friday night, as the nation is spared a complicated tiebreaker process. For a minute, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland & Labrador all were resting their hopes on a Koe comeback, but he was outmatched in the final end by the shot-making Quebec squad.

"I think as a team we probably played the best, if not one of the best games of the week for our team," Menard said. The key was a three-ender in the fifth, an end Koe suggested that Quebec was probably lucky to get. Quebec out-shot Alberta on the day, 88 per cent to 79 per cent, with Menard easily winning the battle among the skips 89 to 76.

On the adjacent ice sheet, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan were in a pretty good battle, but it looked like the Laycock rink had control of the game all the way through. New Brunswick skip James Grattan earned two points in the first end, but that was quickly matched, and Saskatchewan picked up two in four and Laycock made an excellent draw to score three in the eighth and take a 7-4 lead.

Teams up by three points without the hammer after the 8th win about 96 per cent of the time, per sports mathemagician Rob Pettapiece, but New Brunswick took two in the next on a draw from Grattan, who curled just 68 per cent on the day but had a chance because Saskatchewan had difficulty making those final shots.

Laycock's squad fell apart in the tenth end. Lead Dallan Muyres missed his first tick shot and second Colton Flasch missed two chances at a runback double takeout, allowing Grattan to set up his three rocks closer and closer to the button. Laycock wound up with an opportunity to draw a piece of the button for the win but missed everything in the rings, giving up a steal of three to lose by two.

"We missed seven of eight shots that end, so it just wasn't great," said Laycock. He took responsibility, however, for missing his final throw. "Obviously you don't want to be looking at three when you're up one, and that was a tough hole that we hadn't play it all game. I liked it out of my hand and our guys swept it early, but it was just heavy by the time it got there."

Coming into the day, the likely outcomes to avoid a tiebreaker would have been a win for Saskatchewan and a loss for Quebec, which would have guaranteed a playoff spot to all four Western Canadian provinces, but it wasn't to be. "It would have been nice," said Laycock. "We're a young team. You don't know how many more chances you're going to have at this."

"We knew that Quebec was going to win that game so we knew it was in our control to try and get in that tiebreaker. Just didn't finish that game. It was a real poor last end."