KELOWNA, B.C. — Brad Gushue sat down by the coach's bench after one of the biggest misses of his career and blankly stared out at the Sheet C ice at Prospera Place.
The St. John's skip had been in a favourable position in a heavyweight semifinal showdown with Alberta's Brad Jacobs at the Montana's Brier.
Down one with hammer and needing only a tapback to reach the final, Gushue settled into the hack to make the kind of clutch shot he's known for.
Instead he made a heavy throw that he'll be thinking about for a while.
"I'm hugely disappointed," Gushue said after the 7-5 loss. "I feel like I'm going to be apologizing to my teammates for quite some time after that one."
Jacobs put some pressure on in the 10th end by making a draw to the four-foot ring that left him shot stone behind a guard.
Gushue followed with a rock that was heavy out of his hand, forcing Canada lead Geoff Walker to provide a desperate sweep in an attempt to make it curl. The stone grazed the Jacobs stone before rolling out as the sellout crowd gasped.
Alberta vice Marc Kennedy lowered his hands to his knees, as shocked as anyone. His teammates were just as surprised.
"That is the biggest break of the year," Jacobs said. "Maybe the biggest break that I've seen for us in my career."
Gushue had dropped a 7-4 decision to Manitoba's Matt Dunstone in the Page playoff 1-2 game a night earlier. Dunstone earned a direct berth to the final Sunday night with the win.
Gushue shouldered the blame after the semifinal loss, saying he felt bad for teammates Mark Nichols, Walker and Brendan Bottcher.
"They put me in a position for us to win that game, I just overthrew that last rock," Gushue said. "I threw it six feet harder than what I needed to throw it. It's just unfortunate."
The result ended his bid to win the Brier for a record fourth straight time and seventh time overall.
Both teams were feeling time-clock pressure in the 10th end. Gushue still managed to go through his usual routine in the hack and gave himself maximum ice for a throw that he felt was good for line.
"I never expected it to go by but it ended up being a little bit harder than I even anticipated or even thought I threw it," he said. "So a combination of path and (a) bad throw. Yeah, it sucks."
The teams blanked the first three ends before Gushue opened the scoring with a steal when Jacobs rubbed a guard on a tap attempt for two.
The Alberta side responded in the next end. Gushue ticked a guard with his first stone and nosed a hit-and-roll attempt that allowed Jacobs to make a hit for three.
"We did a lot of good things today and we battled," Gushue said. "Two mistakes by me cost us the game. Touching the guard there in the fifth end when they got three, and then obviously missing that last rock.
"Make one of those and it's a different situation. So I'm definitely going to put this one on my shoulders today."
Gushue settled for one in the sixth end when his draw was heavy but he got hammer back when he forced Jacobs to draw the button. The Canada skip brought the crowd to its feet in the eighth end with a double-takeout for three.
"That was a heavyweight bout," Jacobs said. "I said to the guys multiple times throughout that game that there's just no place we'd rather be."
Jacobs made a big-weight hit for two in the ninth end with a third point denied on a measure.
When his final draw in the 10th settled by the side of the button, he pegged his chances of a victory at about five per cent.
"It was a pretty tough one to miss if you throw the right weight," Jacobs said. "When he let it go and they started carving it immediately trying to help it curl, all I'm thinking to myself is 'Just keeping running straight.' But I think Brad was just a little heavy, a little wide, and maybe (felt) a little bit of adrenalin.
"Sure enough it just coasted on by."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 9, 2025.
Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press
