The playoff picture at this year's Brier as veterans and underdogs pull out the stops
CBC
In a Brier that has been full of twists and turns, including a number of unexpected results, the playoff field is now set as the field of 18 teams has been trimmed to just six.
Saskatchewan's Mike McEwen, who placed first in Pool B with a 7-1 record, takes on Alberta's Brendan Bottcher in the 1 vs. 2 qualifying game.
Team Canada's Brad Gushue is set to square off against Manitoba's Reid Carruthers, who placed first in Pool A with a 7-1 round-robin record, in another qualifying game.
Those four teams placed in the top two of their pools.
Manitoba's Matt Dunstone grabbed the last playoff spot in Pool A with a win over Newfoundland and Labrador on Thursday night.
Perhaps the most remarkable story circles around the Northwest Territories and the team from Yellowknife.
Skip Jamie Koe, in his 17th appearance at the national championship, was able to defeat Prince Edward Island in a dramatic extra end finish on Thursday afternoon to clinch third in Pool B and grab the final playoff spot.
It's just the second time in Brier history the Northwest Territories has qualified for the playoffs. Koe also clinched the other playoff berth in 2012.
"Pretty incredible moment. It's just wild. Everyone came down to the ice after the game and were crying. Dad was crying. It got me going," Koe said, with tears in his eyes.
"We looked at the pools when we got here and wondered if we could make the playoffs. It's surreal. We got it done. It just all came together."
Northwest Territories has received support from curling fans all across the country, especially in the North.
"People are rooting for us. We're one of the underdogs and we'll enjoy this moment," Koe said.
Saskatchewan's Mike McEwen rink earned the top spot in the pool with a 7-1 record.
It's been 44 years since Saskatchewan last won a Brier title — Rick Folk in 1980 — the same year McEwen was born. The veteran skip, in his ninth Brier appearance, is brimming with confidence and feels this might just be the moment he wins his first title and snaps the Saskatchewan Brier drought.
A two-year suspension from competitive swimming has forced Penny Oleksiak to answer questions about drug use, train by herself in public pools and defend her legacy as Canada’s most decorated female Olympian.
Hockey, one of the premier events at the Winter Olympics and one that is welcoming NHL players back for the first time in more than a decade, will take place on ice shorter than NHL-regulation size.
Summer McIntosh capped swimming’s U.S. Open with the event record in the women’s 200-metre butterfly on Saturday in Austin, Texas.
Some bronze medals are worth their weight in gold. Valerie Grenier's third-place finish in women's giant slalom at the Mont-Tremblant World Cup certainly fits that category.
The men’s World Cup draw in Washington D.C. was going well for Canada until Pot 4.
The draw for the 2026 World Cup takes place Friday at 12 p.m. ET at the Kennedy Center in Washington, for the purpose of dividing the 48-team field into 12 groups of four. Once the tournament starts, 32 teams will advance from those preliminary groups to the single-elimination knockout rounds.
The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., buzzed with activity and speculation on Thursday in advance of Friday’s all-important draw for the 2026 men’s World Cup.
By the time the management group for the Canadian men’s national hockey team emerges from marathon meetings on Tuesday, as much as 80 per cent of the roster going to Italy next February should be written in pen.
Canada’s ski mountaineering athletes have their Olympic dreams on the line this weekend at a World Cup event in Solitude, Utah.
Goalie Carter Hart, one of five 2018 Canada world junior hockey players acquitted of sexual assault in July, will make his first NHL appearance in nearly two years when he starts in goal Tuesday night for the Vegas Golden Knights, who host Chicago.
The Canadian women’s hockey team will bring back plenty of familiar faces for its final pre-Olympic games in Edmonton next week.
Ottawa Charge head coach Carla MacLeod has been diagnosed with breast cancer, the team announced Sunday.