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Brad Gushue opened his final Montana’s Brier on a winning note Friday night in St. John’s.
Gushue, of St. John’s, N.L., earned a 10-2 victory over Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard in opening action. Gushue, 45, who will retire from curling at season’s end, is playing in the Brier in his home city for the first time since 2017, when he was crowned champion.
Predictably, Gushue received a thunderous reception from the hometown gathering.
“I actually got a little teary-eyed there when it kept going,” said Gushue. “To see that, and to feel it and hear it, definitely got the jitters going.
“Even in the practice, when we had the draw to the button, I haven’t had the shakes quite the way I had them in practice there in a long time. To get that roar was really special and hopefully we get more roars like that all week.”
Gushue is a six-time national champion. But he understands balancing his emotions is just as important as embracing them.
“For me, and our team, we can really get hyped up for that and I don’t know if that’s a place that necessarily benefits us,” said Gushue. “You want to make sure you have that motivation and embrace the crowd, but you also have to stay at a good level.
“I’ve been caught in the past with getting too hyped up with crowds and generally don’t play well. I wanted to make sure that I stayed level; stayed composed and within myself.”
Gushue opened with two in the first end, but after scoring one in the third, Menard, a former Brier champion and world silver medallist, pulled even with a single in the sixth.
However, Gushue, a world champion and Olympic gold and bronze medal winner, cemented the victory with four in both the seven and eighth ends to conclude the match.
“For how nervous I felt and how shaky I was at the beginning, I think we did pretty good,” said Gushue. “I missed that one draw there in six that I’d love to have back, but outside of that, made all the shots.”
Canada’s Brad Jacobs, fresh off winning a gold medal at the Milan Cortina Olympics, earned an 8-3 victory over Prince Edward Island’s Tyler Smith. And like Gushue, Jacobs received a warm reception from the crowd.
“There’s nowhere else you will hear a louder crowd than here,” said Jacobs. “I did not expect St. John’s to cheer for our team when we entered the building, I thought that was really nice of them.
The Brier is returning to Newfoundland and Labrador for the first time since hometown skip Brad Gushue won it in 2017. Thousands of people will take in the matches, but more than 400 volunteers are also needed to make sure it all goes smoothly. Host Committee vice-chair Eugene Trickett spoke about the need for volunteers on The St. John’s Morning Show.
“Obviously, they have a lot of respect for our team and what we did over in Italy for Canada. Newfoundland is a big part of Canada. There’s a lot of history, tradition and passionate people. We certainly want to let everyone here know that we won that gold for them as well, all of Canada.”
However, Jacobs got off to a slow start. Not only did his rink start the game without hammer, it surrendered two in the first.
“Little bit of a rocky start,” said Jacobs. “They got hammer on us and scored a deuce early, so we had to battle.
“Got some breaks, some misses, and just kept learning throughout that game. Learning the sheet, learning how to make shots and we were able to string a bunch together.”
The Olympic gold medallists rebounded quickly, though. After scoring two in the second, Canada added singles in the fourth, fifth and sixth ends before scoring three in the seventh.
In other opening action, Ontario’s Jayden King defeated Nova Scotia’s Kendal Thompson 11-4 while Newfoundland and Labrador’s Nathan Young got past Nunavut’s Derek Samagalski 8-4.
Action continues Saturday with an afternoon and evening draw.
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