LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — Shortly after securing first place in his pool with another comfortable round-robin win, Alberta's Kevin Koe looked up at the media backdrop stand adorned with pictures of previous national men's curling champions.
The veteran skip is holding the Tim Hortons Brier tankard in four of them. He has cleared the first hurdle in his mission to do it a fifth time.
Koe beat Prince Edward Island's Tyler Smith 8-3 on Thursday afternoon at the Enmax Centre to top the Pool A table at 7-1.
"Lots of pride, I guess, to have won this four times," Koe said. "Obviously, they're great memories but the focus is obviously trying to win another. All of us having won it, it'll probably help calm us a little.
"We know what to expect if we get into a situation to try to win another one hopefully."
The first-place positioning gives Koe, third B.J. Neufeld, second John Morris and lead Ben Hebert some extra rest. They'll get to skip the crossover playoff qualifier games Friday afternoon between the second- and third-place finishers.
"We're glad we're there but now the real work begins," Hebert said.
Canada's Brendan Bottcher (7-1) was in second place after a 6-3 win over Nathan Young of Newfoundland and Labrador. Saskatchewan's Colton Flasch needed an extra end for a 9-8 win over Wild Card Two's Matt Dunstone, setting up a morning tiebreaker between the 6-2 provincial rivals for the third and final playoff spot in Pool A.
In Pool B, Brad Gushue's Wild Card One team (8-0) secured first place with a 6-5 victory over Wild Card Three's Jason Gunnlaugson. Gushue kept his unbeaten record intact in the evening with an 8-7 win over B.C.'s Brent Pierce (4-4).
Northern Ontario's Brad Jacobs (6-2) secured second place with a 10-2 rout of Nova Scotia's Paul Flemming (3-5). Mike McEwen dropped a 9-6 decision to Quebec's Michael Fournier (4-4) to set up a tiebreaker against Gunnlaugson (5-3), who was idle for the evening draw.
McEwen (5-3) gave up four points in the ninth end and conceded in the 10th.
"It's a little disappointing to have a bad game," McEwen said. "At least it didn't knock us out. It could be a really long day tomorrow."
Gushue, meanwhile, said that he feels like he's playing with house money at the Brier. He has had a whirlwind schedule after winning Olympic bronze a few weeks ago at the Beijing Olympics.
"The (fewer) games we can play right now the better," Gushue said. "I'm pretty pooped after two long, tight games today. I went back after the first game and slept for over two hours. I'm pretty exhausted."
In the other late game, Jamie Koe (1-7) of the Northwest Territories beat Peter Mackey (0-8) of Nunavut 11-4.
Ontario's Glenn Howard finished in fifth place in Pool A at 4-4. He was followed by New Brunswick's James Grattan (3-5) and Smith, Young and Yukon's Thomas Scoffin, all at 1-7.
It's an 18-team field at the national playdowns this year - two more than usual - and there's an expanded playoff structure.
The crossover game winners will play the pool leaders in the evening. The winners of those games advance to the Page playoff 1-2 game Saturday and the losers meet in the 3-4 game.
The 1-2 Page winner goes directly to Sunday night's final. The 1-2 loser plays the 3-4 winner in the semifinal earlier that day.
The Brier winner will represent Canada at the April 2-10 world men's curling championship in Las Vegas.
Kerri Einarson won her third straight Scotties Tournament of Hearts title last month in Thunder Bay, Ont. She will wear the Maple Leaf at the March 19-27 women's world curling championship in Prince George, B.C.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2022.
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Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press
