'He's clutch': Gushue's heroics lead Canada to third straight Brier title

REGINA — Just when it looked like the home Team Saskatchewan was going to orchestrate a comeback for the ages, Brad Gushue nailed a takeout to stick a double and score a pair out of near-thin air, and the veteran skipper pumped his fist and yelled: “Yeah! Come on!”

This was the turning point on Sunday night at the Brandt Centre, as the decorated skipper from Newfoundland led his Team Canada to a third straight Brier title, an incredible sixth championship in eight years for Gushue and his long-time teammates Mark Nichols and Geoff Walker, and a third win for second, E.J. Harnden. 

“This moment is what it’s all about,” a smiling Gushue said after a 9-5 win in nine ends, while Tina Turner’s Simply the Best appropriately blasted over the arena speakers. “This is why I play. This is why I love the game. And I love this moment, to see it all come to fruition after the hard work this week. It’s so cool. And it isn’t about how many, it’s about this moment here.”

Well, for a moment let’s consider how many: Six in all, tying Randy Ferbey for the most ever. 

And if you ask Nichols, the moment on Sunday came because of what Gushue pulled off in the seventh end, when Saskatchewan could’ve tied things up, but instead Gushue scored two to extend their lead to three. “It’s one of the better — I mean, I’ve been spoiled for 20 years, I get to watch it all the time — he makes all of them and it’s like, ‘oh yeah, here’s another one,’” Nichols said. “And he did it. He saved us in seven.” 

Leave it to Gushue to spoil the hometown, feel-good, drought-ending fairy tale and deny Saskatchewan its first Brier championship in 44 years on home ice, instead authoring the story to lead his team to yet another gold medal. 

And what a fight Team Saskatchewan’s Mike McEwen, Colton Flasch and twin brothers Dan and Kevin Marsh put up, at home, in front of 5,734 appreciative fans who rang their cowbells and wore their Roughriders green and waved their yellow and green flags and cheered their “Let’s go Saskatchewan!” cheers. 

It didn’t get off to a great start for the home team, and they struggled with ice conditions that were different from their semi-final earlier Sunday. “We kind of came out a little bit flat,” as Kevin Marsh, Saskatchewan’s second, put it.

“It hurts we didn’t have our best game,” McEwen said. “Tough conditions. I think you could tell that both teams were struggling with the ice, but Brad was stellar, you know, the first four ends. He nailed us the first four ends.” 

Particularly in the fourth. That’s when Gushue expertly orchestrated a tough split, nudging a rock that was just outside the rings to just inside, while the shooter also rolled in to join another for three. The 43-year-old skip from St. John’s somehow made it look easy. 

At the halfway mark, Canada was up 5-1. Saskatchewan was in need of magic, and the home team delivered. 

In the sixth, Flasch, the Saskatchewan third, set the table for a steal after a couple of misses from Canada. Saskatchewan was sitting two, and McEwen floated in a perfect draw to make it three. That sent this crowd into an absolute clapping, cowbell-ringing tizzy. 

Gushue’s last, he nudged an outside Saskatchewan stone, and Canada had definitely given up at least two. As the measuring stick came out, the crowd chanted: “Three! Three! Three! Three!” The measure showed it was a steal of just two, by just a hair. 

“We were a whisker from stealing three on that measure, that would have tied the game,” McEwen said. 

Instead, Saskatchewan was down 5-4 heading into the seventh, and looked to have something cooking there for another steal, but that’s when Gushue got his team out of trouble with a takeout to stick two and take a 7-4 lead to put the game away. 

Walker, Team Canada’s lead, didn’t pause for even a second when asked what his favourite thing is about his long-time skip and friend: “He’s clutch,” Walker said, grinning. Indeed, Gushue is. 

When it was over, the Team Canada skip threw both arms in the air while the crowd roared. 

As McEwen slid down the ice to join his teammates and get his silver medal — his best-ever finish here at the Brier, in his 10^th appearance — the crowd stood and cheered for their import skip. 

McEwen, 43, said that earlier Sunday, he made a long list of all the people he was playing for, and it included the many fans in green here. “So was it pressure for me?” McEwen asked. “It was an honour. And that’s truly what this week was for us. It was an honour to play here.” 

Sunday’s final truly was a storybook final matchup, to have Team Canada looking for a three-peat up against the host Saskatchewan, ranked sixth in the country, the team looking to end a drought at home, where the Marsh twins and Flasch are all from. Saskatchewan was led by their import Winnipeg-born skip who fell out of love with curling not long ago and came here back in love with the game and looking for a life-changing first title in his first season wearing green, in front of fans who treated him like he was one of their own. 

It was McEwen who got the loudest cheers from fans in the building Sunday night when the teams were introduced. One group wore green t-shirts on that read: Mc-E-W-E-N, and another held up a “Magic Mike!” sign. They sure do like the out-of-towner. And it was just six months ago that this Team Saskatchewan was put together, and they made it all the way to the title game, and put up an admirable fight. 

“We have everything to be proud of, what we did in six months,” McEwen said. “This is a great team and we’re not done yet.” 

Up next for Gushue and Team Canada is the world championships later this month in Switzerland, where the team will represent the country for a third straight year. 

“We were knocking our heads for so long to win one, and now to say we’ve got six, E.J.’s got three, man it’s been wild,” Nichols said. With this sixth Brier title, he, Gushue and Walker are now tied for the most all-time, with Randy Ferbey. 

Nichols repeated more than a couple of times just how lucky he is to have had a front-row seat to Gushue’s magic over the last two decades. 

“He's just good under pressure. It's the years of experience and knowing kind of how to throw it and where to miss and what to make. But he's just so cool and calm under pressure, he just loves this atmosphere, he loves this championship. He wants to win so bad, and nothing fazes him,” Nichols said. “It's fun to watch.”

As Gushue stood smiling on the blue carpet when it was all over, he said he wasn’t sure he’d be standing here a champion. After all, his team started off 2-2 in the round robin and he swears their confidence was low. But they got here, and he thought this championship was slipping away after the sixth end. Then, of course, the skip pulled off that magical deuce in the seventh. 

“We made four brutal mistakes in the sixth end really left ourselves no shot, and I could see my team speeding up a little bit,” Gushue said. “They were moving a little faster, and I wanted to slow it down, and I figured if I can make my two shots in seven, I was going to show a little bit of emotion to get them fired up. And it worked.”

It did. And now Gushue and co. are champions again. 

“It feels awesome,” Gushue said. “Just awesome.”