Alberta, Ontario atop Brier standings

Canadian Press
3/14/2006 7:23:49 PM

REGINA (CP) - Glenn Howard remained upbeat after his Ontario team’s winning streak came to an end at the Canadian men’s curling championship Tuesday.

Alberta’s Kevin Martin halted Ontario’s run of wins at six with a 7-4 victory over Howard and then earned a matching sixth victory with a 8-1 decision over Newfoundland and Labrador at night.

Ontario and Alberta were both 6-1 at the top of the 12-team field and their game was the best yet in the preliminary round of the Tim Horton’s Brier. It also could have been a preview of the Sunday final.

”Hey, we lost to one of the best teams in the world, so no harm,” Howard said. ”I take a lot from that. I thought our guys played solid.”

Alberta scored 91 per cent as a team in shooting accuracy to Ontario’s 89 per cent.

Jeff Stoughton of Manitoba lost his third straight to fall to a 4-3 record. The third loss was a 7-6 decision to Jamie Koe of Yukon/Northwest Territories.

”Four and three, hmmm, I think we’re in a little trouble,” Stoughton said, sarcasm dripping from his lips. ”We’re going to have to win a lot of games.

”Let’s be serious. We’re out there plugging away, trying our best, and if we don’t win, we don’t win. If we win, we win, it’s a bonus. Certainly it’s not going to change our lives in any way, but we still want to win this thing, of course.”

The Territories has historically been lightly regarded at this tournament, but Koe is a seasoned skip and made a tough draw to the edge of the button to score two.

”It’s good to be able to compete with a team of that stature,” said Koe, who wouldn’t quantify the victory as the biggest in Brier history for the Territories, now 3-4.

”No, the biggest one will be later this week,” Koe said with confidence. ”We’re at the four-loss mark, so we can’t (lose) anymore.

”If we want to be around at the end of the week, we have to win the rest out.”

Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard was 5-2 behind the leaders followed by Manitoba, Nova Scotia’s Mark Dacey and B.C.’s Brian Windsor at 4-3.

Saskatchewan’s Pat Simmons kept his playoff hopes alive with a third win in a row after opening the tournament with four losses. New Brunswick’s James Grattan and P.E.I.’s Rod MacDonald were also 3-4.

The four teams with the best records at the conclusion of the round robin Thursday advance to the Page playoff Friday.

The top two seeds square off in one game with the winner moving on to the Sunday final, while the loser drops to a Saturday semifinal against the winner of a sudden-death playoff game between the third and fourth seeds.

Ties for fourth Thursday will be solved by tie-breaker games, and a 7-4 record might be enough to get there. Eight wins is considered the safe number for finishing in the top four.

After a sloppy effort in an extra-end loss to Manitoba the previous day, Martin’s teammates Don Walchuk, Carter Rycroft and Don Bartlett responded with their best performance of the tournament so far against Ontario on Tuesday.

”That was a different team that showed up on the ice,” Martin said. ”That was our first good game as a team.

”You figure it’s going to happen. We waited a long time. That was Game 6 for us, but an important one.”

Bartlett sat out Alberta’s next game against Newfoundland to rest his back. Alternate Mark Johnson subbed. Martin said Bartlett would probably take another game off before the conclusion of the round robin Thursday.

Both Martin and Howard lauded the other skip’s play after as Martin shot 98 per cent and Howard turned in a 90.

”Kevin was on fire,” Howard said. ”Kevin made everything.”

Connections between members of the two teams go back a long way. Howard played third for older brother Russ Howard, who won an Olympic gold medal with the Brad Gushue rink last month, for 17 years before moving up to skip. The Howard brothers won two world titles together.

Martin played in his first national championship in 1991 and won two of them since then, along with an Olympic silver medal in 2002.

Howard and Martin have had many battles, the most recent prior to Tuesday was the $180,000 Strauss Canada Cup in January, when Martin edged Howard 5-4 in the final.

Martin’s team came out swinging Tuesday by scoring three in the second for a 3-1 lead. Martin had last-rock advantage. Howard jammed a double takeout on the edge of the 12-foot rings, leaving Martin a draw for three.

Ontario had some tough luck in the fourth when third Richard Hart’s attempted freeze caught debris on the ice and didn’t make it into the house. Howard needed to make a freeze on the four-foot rings to limit Martin to two and a 5-2 lead.

There was interesting shotmaking in the fifth end as Howard, trying to set up for two, took his only option of drawing behind an Alberta guard way out on the edge of the 12-foot rings, where the sliding path of the rock can be unpredictable.

Not to be outdone, Martin drew in on top of it, and Howard had to make a difficult takeout just to blank the end and retain last-rock advantage.

”That was a very difficult blank,” Martin said. ”What a shot that was.”

Alberta, a hard-throwing team, kept the top of the house clear by doubling off Ontario stones in front of and at the top of the house. Martin’s team gave Ontario no opportunity to generate a big end and get back in the game.

Howard pointed out that Martin’s game has evolved and the Alberta skip can play the finesse game as well as the hitting game.

”You have to have the soft stuff to compete at this level now and Kevin is a prime example,” Howard said. ”He’s got all the tools. He gave us nothing.”

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