Hammer of the gods?
The curling fates may have played their cards in ending Ferbey's streak
By TERRY JONES -- Edmonton Sun
SASKATOON -- Twenty-three skidoo. Times two.
The great Brier winning streak is over. The great Brier path winning run is done.
Brier on! Brier on!
Randy Ferbey has been beaten.
Dave Nedohin missed a last shot.
Huff & Puff couldn't blow the house down in back-to-back Briers. Marcel "Huff" Rocque and Scott "Puff" Pfeifer are human. OK - just Pfeifer.
It's over but not out for the Alberta rink, which goes into the final day of the round robin tied with Mark Dacey of Nova Scotia with 8-1 records.
Dacey, the transplanted Saskatchewanian who lost the Brier final to Ferbey last year in Halifax, won the trivia contest.
Dacey, Bruce Lohnes, Rob Harris and Andrew Gibson got to be the answer to the question 'Who stopped the longest winning streak in Brier history?'
With an 8-7 win, Dacey and the Blue Nosers stopped the 23-game Brier winning streak that dates back to a loss to Mark Noseworthy of Newfoundland in the 2002 Brier.
NOT EASY
But there was another 23-game winning streak the Albertans had going, dating back to a loss in the Edmonton zones prior to running the table at the northern Alberta and provincial playdowns to get here this year.
"Maybe the curling gods decided to finally get back at us," said Ferbey.
"It was not supposed to be that easy.
"I don't know what I'm supposed to say. It's been a Brier and a half since we lost.
"I'm more bothered by the way we lost than that we did lose. We don't lose games when we're three points up. If Dave makes his last draw on the eighth end we're here answering questions from you guys about going undefeated again.
"I think we're spoiled. And this Brier hasn't had the spark of the other ones.
"We're still here to win (this)," he said of the rink which went 11-2 to win in 2001 in Ottawa, 11-2 in 2002 in Calgary and 13-0 last year in Halifax.
"There's only one streak that matters and I don't have to tell you which one that is," he said of going for four in a row.
But if you figured there might be some sense of relief to finally end the run, there was none.
"Not a chance," spat Nedohin. "I'm not happy about it, not one bit," said the Brier MVP for the last three years.
"I hate losing. It has nothing to do with the number of straight wins we had going. It could have been a two-game streak. It doesn't matter. The streak was just something for people to talk about."
Dacey said it tastes great and feels good ... for the moment.
"We put their streak to an end and let the world know that they can actually lose a game at the Brier," he said.
"It's kind of nice to be the team to do it.
"They're human beings. We don't play against them physically, just against their rocks. They're like playing Tiger Woods," said the head professional at the Fox Harbour Golf Resort in Nova Scotia.
There's a possible downside, suggested Dacey.
"Those guys will be even more motivated to kick our butts the next time. Dave missing both his shots on the last end is completely unusual."
Nedohin came up short on a draw (he'd been 100% on draws to that point) in the eighth end. Dacey made a circus shot angle-raise takeout against one to score three and send the game to the ninth end with the teams tied 6-6.
Nedohin crashed on a guard with his first shot in the 10th and called out "forget it" to his sweepers half-way down the ice on his second shot.
"Losing for the first time in a long time feels exactly what it is supposed to feel like," said Pfeifer.
"I had a stinker. I didn't set things up like I've been setting things up all week," said the University of Alberta student who curled 100% in one game and 99% in another and led all seconds all week until coming up with a 73% effort in this one.
"It always sucks to lose," said Rocque who shot 98% in vain in the game. "But we've said it all along. There are good curlers here. We didn't come here expecting to go undefeated again. This is the Brier.
"Dave came up short on that draw in the eighth and made two bad shots in the 10th. How often is that going to happen? We're going into the final day of the round robin with one loss. How bad is that?"
DEAL WITH IT
Before returning to the ice and scoring a 6-5 win over the Spud Islanders in the evening, Ferbey said one of the things about losing a game after winning 23 in a row at the Brier and 23 in a row on the playdown path is that it doesn't teach you anything about bouncing back from a loss.
"We don't know how to deal with it," he said.
"We're going to have to look at some of the losers out there."
Like Brian Wasnea, skip of the Territories? He had a chance to finally win a game here yesterday and missed his last rock shot to give up a steal of two and lose 8-7 to Northern Ontario. This is a guy who came to the Edmonton 1999 Brier with Orest Peech and went 0-11. He's now 0-20 at the Brier.
At least he kept his, er, unblemished streak alive.
