Jamie Koe and his Yellowknife Curling Centre squad are well positioned at the Montana’s Brier in Regina this week.
At the start of this morning’s play, the NWT were sitting at the top of the leaderboard in their pool at the Canadian men’s curling championship with a record of four wins and one loss. The lone blemish came at the hands of big brother Kevin Koe on Saturday by a score of 8-4. It’s the 12th straight time Kevin has beaten Jamie at the Brier.
The format at this year’s Brier is two pools of nine with the top three in each pool advancing to the next round towards the championship.
“We have a lot of experience with this team now,” said Koe in a Sunday night media scrum. “We’re focused on the games — last year we had a lot of stuff in out personal lives which was a distraction and affected our performance but this year, we are focusing on winning games.”
This is Koe’s best start since the 2012 Brier, where he also started 3-1 and ultimately made the playoffs and the bronze medal game.
“That year was similar in a way with a strong start,” said Koe. “We’ve looked at who we match up against and need to beat and which games we need to upset some of the favorites to be there at the end of the week.”
Their first victory was against the Brier rookies from Quebec on March 1, 7-4. The second win came the following evening against Nova Scotia, a victory which almost didn’t happen.
In the 10th end, Koe had a simple hit to win, but jammed a Nova Scotia rock into his own counter, leaving Nova Scotia skip Matthew Manuel a draw for three to tie it and send it into an extra end. The NWT recovered in the extra end, though, with a single and the victory.
Monday morning’s matchup was a bookmaker’s nightmare when the considerable underdog NWT squad took on the defending and five-time champion Brad Gushue and Team Canada, who was picked as one of the pre-event favourites.
“There are no soft spots in the Brier now and definitely not that team,” said Gushue before the game.
Gushue has direct experience of getting in trouble with the NWT in past Briers.
“We lost to them in my hometown (St. John’s) in 2017 and almost missed the playoffs as a result,” he said.
Koe and company were not intimidated by the moment; they were the featured game in TSN Monday morning. Koe created his own highlight reel as he secured a 7-5 upset victory with an open hit in the 10th end to score one and seal the result.
“The fellas played well and we got some misses from them at the right time,” said Koe in the post-match media scrum. “We need to keep it going now, make our shots and hopefully the wins will follow.”
Meanwhile, Kevin Koe’s Alberta rink is in deep trouble already as they sat with a record of one win and four losses as of Tuesday afternoon.
“That’s kind of bizarro world for them having three (losses) this early,” said Jamie Koe on his brother’s record on Monday. “I hope they figure it out and come back or it could be a short week for them.”
Kevin Koe himself has been struggling with a draw percentage of 75 per cent.
“I’m not really feeling it right now” said Kevin during a scrum on Sunday.
But fans of Kevin shouldn’t lose hope, however, as Kevin has won two Briers fighting back from bad starts.
“The team that makes the playoffs and is hot at the end of the week wins,” said Kevin.
Pool play continues through Thursday with the playoff round starting Friday. The NWT squared off against Nunavut Monday evening, followed by an off-day on Tueaday. They’ll be playing two games against Saskatchewan and another Alberta team skipped by Kevin Sluchinski today and finish up pool play tomorrow versus Prince Edward Island.