“Battle of the Brads” looms at Brier, playoff races heat up

By Canadian Press on March 4, 2026.

ST. JOHN’S — The “Battle of the Brads” and the race for remaining playoff spots promised a dramatic final day of pool play Thursday at the Montana’s Brier.

Undefeated teams skipped by defending champion Brad Jacobs and Brad Gushue of Newfoundland and Labrador clash Thursday afternoon with top seed in Pool A at stake.

Both teams were already playoff bound with records of 7-0, but their meeting had the hype of a heavyweight bout.

The Jacobs foursome is the reigning Olympic champion having won gold in Cortina, Italy, less than week before its first game of the Brier in St. John’s, N.L.

Gushue is attempting to win a record seventh Brier in his hometown, and in what is the last Brier of his career.

“We want to finish strong, we want to have our best game against those guys,” said Jacobs. “This is the game that both teams have been waiting for all week to test one another going into the playoffs.”

The top three teams in each pool of nine advance to Friday’s playoff round.

Jacobs, Gushue and Alberta’s Kevin Koe at 6-0 atop Pool B owned three of the six berths heading into Thursday.

Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard and Jayden King’s rookie Ontario team were hunting for Pool A’s final playoff spot 4-3 records.

“We know it’s been a little bit of a roller-coaster this week, but the best roller-coasters go down and then they go up again and here we are,” said King after Wednesday’s 8-7 win over Menard.

“We just have to worry about the 150 feet in front of us and if we control our rocks, we’ll be in a good spot.”

In Pool B, Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone (5-1), Saskatchewan’s Mike McEwen (5-2), Manitoba’s Braden Calvert (4-2) and New Brunswick’s James Grattan (3-3) sought to snag the two remaining playoff spots Thursday.

There are no tiebreaker games. Ties are resolved via head-to-head record first, and then cumulative rankings from the pre-game draw the button to determine hammer.

Sunday’s winner represents Canada at the men’s world championship March 27 to April 4 in Ogden, Utah.

Pool A draws that featured both Gushue and Newfoundland and Labrador’s Nathan Young have packed the Mary Brown’s Centre.

The building temperature for those draws can jump about seven degrees compared to Pool B draws because of so many bodies in the 7,000-seat arena, said a head ice technician Greg Ewasko.

Gushue’s double tap for victory in a 6-5 win over Saskatchewan’s Kelly Knapp and Young’s team giving Jacobs a stout challenge before falling 10-7 entertained a vocal, partisan crowd Wednesday evening.

The victor in the “Battle of the Brads” earns hammer to start playoff games and also first choice of a set of stones.

“Both teams will tell you they want that hammer in the next game,” Gushue said. “Whoever we’re going to play in those games are going to be really good, so getting the hammer gives you a 60-40 advantage. That’s something big to play for, and we’re going to be gunning hard for that.”

Jacobs is ready to play the villain Thursday against the hometown hero, although he hopes winning Olympic gold counts for something with the partisan crowd.

“Am I ready to be booed? Well, that’s up to them. I’m ready for anything,” Jacobs said. “After the Olympics and about, I don’t know, maybe 500 million people calling us cheaters, getting booed is nothing.”

Jacobs was referencing allegations by the Swedish men’s third Oskar Erikkson that third Marc Kennedy “double-touched” a rock after delivery.

Kennedy responded with profanity and launched many a social media meme during the Milan Cortina Games.

“I really don’t expect to get booed unless we do something unsportsmanlike, which I don’t see us doing,” Jacobs said. “But I do expect them to do what they did tonight, cheer misses. They seem to like doing that.

“We’re going to have to play our best game and do the best job we can to hopefully silence the crowd. But the crowd has been so gracious, generous, just really supportive of our team. I mean, we just won Olympic gold, man.

“We did that for coast to coast, all of Canada, which starts here on the rock in St. John’s, Newfoundland.”

Meanwhile, four-time Brier champion Koe returned to the Brier playoffs after finishing on the outside looking in the last two years.

“It feels great. It’s been a couple Briers since we’ve been even really kind of close,” Koe said.

The 51-year-old skip continued to be vintage Koe in St. John’s with 94 per cent shooting accuracy Wednesday afternoon in an 8-2 victory over Northern Ontario, and led all skips at 90.

Koe’s last Brier win was in 2019 when his team went undefeated in Brandon, Man.

He’s a veteran of eight Brier finals, including 2017 in St. John’s when he fell 7-6 to Gushue.