And He’ll Have Fun, Fun, Fun

14/03/2009 18:27

Martin enjoys classic battles with Howard, might have to beat Ontario rival a third time

Round 1 went to Kevin Martin on Thursday night.

Round 2 to Martin, again, 24 hours later.

But here's the glorious thing about the Tim Hortons Brier: There still remains a possibility, and a good one at that, that his beaten opponent both nights, Ontario's Glenn How-ard, can still pick himself up off the canvas to take another shot at the reigning Brier and world champion.

Oh, sure, Howard, a 7-6 extra-end loser to Alberta in the Page playoff 1-2 game on Friday, will have to prevail in Saturday night's semifinal against the winner of the morning's Page playoff 3-4 clash between Newfoundland/Labrador's Brad Gushue and Manitoba's Jeff Stoughton.

But with all due respect to Gushue and Stoughton, you can rest assured that an entire country of curling fans is clamouring for a third and decisive round in Sunday night's championship final.

"It's so much fun playing against Glenn; we really try hard, but it's all fun," said Martin, moments after making a crowd-pleasing draw to bite the button looking at two Ontario counters to win. "And this game, I told the guys after we were done, we're not going to win every one like that, but enjoy them." Over two straight nights, the two dominant curling teams on the planet have given 12,000 fans 21 ends of simply superb curling; Friday night's playoff game, like the round-robin finale 24 hours earlier, straight true to the script with neither team breaking loose of its rival.

In the end, though, it was Alberta -- winners of a record 25 straight games in Brier competition -- who got it done when it truly counted.

More from the Edmonton Journal.

Stoughton beats Gushue in thrilling Page game at Brier.

BRIER UPDATE:

In an extremely sloppy game last night, Manitoba's Jeff Stoughton beat Glenn Howard of Ontario 8-6 to advance to tonight's championship final against Alberta's Kevin Martin. Stoughton advanced to the semi-final against Howard by scoring two points in the 10th end to defeat Newfoundland/Labrador's Brad Gushue 8-7 in the Page 3 vs. 4 playoff game yesterday morning. If you're a betting person, don't bet against Team Martin tonight.

Catch all of the championship final action live tonight at 6:00 p.m. local time on TSN and TSN-HD.

SWIVEL HIPS SAYS:

After those two games, folks, I’d have loved nothing more than to see a third match-up between Alberta and Ontario. Unfortunately, it's not to be.