by Martin Gavin
Special to Northern News Services
Jamie Koe and his Yellowknife foursome will need to turn things around to see championship round play at the 2018 Tim Hortons Brier in Regina this week.
Team NWT, with third Chris Schille, second Brad Chorostkowski and lead Robert Borden sat at 1-2 as of press time in the preliminary round pools.
“We need to keep putting pressure on and hope things turn around,” said Koe, “We are missing at the wrong times and the teams here make you pay for that.”
To put it in perspective, the Northerners need to win three of their remaining four games in this round to maintain advancement options.
Koe and company started the week with a strong win over Newfoundland and Labrador's Greg Smith, a new team whose approach surprised the 12-time Brier veteran.
“Usually newcomers play defensive in their first games but these guys were really aggressive … they kept coming at us and coming at us and eventually we dropped four (points),” smirked Koe. “We stuck with them and eventually, they made a few mistakes and we pulled it out.”
Smith was visibly upset by the loss, demonstrating that by breaking his broom into pieces after missing his last shot.
“I am so disappointed, we played so well and I missed such an easy shot to lose,” he said following the game.
Team NWT was unable to convert on their strong start, losing their next game to Alberta, 9-2, which led into a rematch versus Brad Gushue. In 2017, Gushue won the Brier losing only two games, one of which was to Koe.
“I always expect them to be one of the toughest opponents,” said Gushue before the game on Monday. “These guys beat us last year and maybe its payback.”
Gushue and his Team Canada outfit indeed got their payback as they controlled the game throughout and handed Jamie his second loss by a score of 8-4.
“We need to play better to beat a team of that calibre,” said Koe following the game.
The team will finish the round-robin against strong opponents. The upcoming games were against Nova Scotia on Monday evening, B.C. yesterday and Team Wild Card (Mike McEwen from Manitoba) and the battle of the North with Yukon today. Team NWT is expected to be in a good position as past Briers have resulted in winning records for Koe against both Nova Scotia and B.C.
Jamie will also draw on past experience against the Yukon. Prior to 2016, the NWT champions would face off against Yukon to determine the Northern representative. Jamie has never lost to Yukon to qualify for the Brier.
“We are in an OK spot, (just) looking to build some momentum,” said Koe. “We match up well against three of our four remaining opponents and if we win those three games, we have a good chance at round two.”