1995 Labatt Brier Tankard (Cdn Men's Curling Championship)
From: lee@physics.ubc.ca (Henry Lee)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada,can.general,rec.sport.misc
Subject: 1995 Labatt Brier Tankard (Cdn Men's Curling Championship)
Date: 14 Mar 1995 19:01:56 GMT
Organization: The University of British Columbia
Message-ID: <3k4p74$a42@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca>
1995 Labatt Brier : Canadian Men's Curling Championship
Metro Centre -- Halifax, Nova Scotia
Final - Sunday, March 12, 1995
The field for the upcoming Labatt Brier Tankard in Halifax was extremely good:
- Werenich (Ont)
- Hackner & Lang (N. Ont)
- Burtnyk (Man)
- Folk & Ryan (BC)
- Martin (Alb)
*All* had won the Brier at one time (or more) in the past 15 years.
After the round-robin, the top four teams in order were
Manitoba (10-1), Saskatchewan (8-3), Ontario and Alberta.
"Page" playoff system
Sask def Man : Sask bye to final, Man in semi-final
Alb def Ont : Ont out, Alb in semi-final
Semi-final : Manitoba (Burtnyk) defeated Alberta (Martin) 9-3
Man 1 1 3 0 2 0 2 x x x 9
Alb 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 x x x 3
Final : Manitoba (Burtnyk) over Saskatchewan (Heidt) 10-8
In 1981 in Halifax at the very same Metro Centre, Burtnyk overcame
a three point deficit in the 9th and 10th ends, then stealing the extra end
to defeat Al Hackner 6-5, making Burtnyk the youngest skip at 21 to ever
win a Brier. Fourteen years later, he won it all again.
Man 1 0 2 0 2 2 0 1 0 2 10
Sask 0 2 0 1 0 0 3 0 2 0 8
This was an incredible game from the get-go, a "cat and mouse" affair
with misses, fabulous hit-and-rolls, double and triple takeouts and
a number of missed opportunities. Notable moments included :
in the 5th end, Heidt missed a tough raise into the 4-foot, allowing
Manitoba to steal two. In the following end, Sask bailed themselves out of
another tough end with an incredible triple takeout by third Mark Dacey.
Burtnyk rubbed on a guard on an outturn takeout with his final rock,
allowing Heidt to hit and stick for four. However, a Manitoba rock was
biting mid-high in the 12-foot with a Sask rock biting on the outside.
Heidt's last rock successfully removed the Manitoba stone, did not remove the
Sask rock already in play but rolled out his own shooter for three.
In the tenth end, Heidt attempted an inturn draw to the four and would've
gotten there until it nicked the low guard (an "inch"!) and rolled open to
the back-4. With last rock, Burtnyk coolly removed the Sask stone for two
and the victory.
1995 is truly the year of the Manitoban curlers. Both Canadian junior
representatives hail from Manitoba; last month, Connie Laliberte from Winnipeg
claimed her third Canadian women's title in Calgary and on Sunday, Burtnyk
claimed his second Brier to complete the Manitoba sweep.
Both Laliberte and Burtnyk don't have to go far to represent Canada
next month in Brandon at the 1995 World Curling Championships.
--
Henry Lee
Dept. of Physics & Astronomy E-mail: lee@aries.yorku.ca
York University, 4700 Keele Street
North York, Ontario M3J 1P3 Canada Phone: 416-736-2100 x6-6391