Team Brad Jacobs knew the final rock of the 2015 Players’ Championship men’s final Sunday in Toronto was going to be close. After all, they had been in a similar situation at the same event a year ago.
Back then, Jacobs faced Kevin Martin for the Players’ title in Summerside, P.E.I. The “Ol’ Bear” was heading into retirement and looking to cap his legendary career on a high note. Meanwhile, the Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., team of Jacobs, third Ryan Fry, second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden were still riding the whirlwind from capturing the gold medal at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and aiming to finish their season winning their first Grand Slam of Curling title together.
Down by a pair without hammer coming home, Jacobs sat three stones in the house but Martin made the draw with his last shot ever to negate two of those rocks and win his record 18th career Grand Slam.
Jacobs really wanted to win that one but said, “it wasn’t meant to be.” He was disappointed, of course, but also optimistic for the future. The team had a new target in 2014-15: winning a major at the National in November on home ice at the Essar Centre in Sault Ste. Marie.
They had played in a Grand Slam event there before, but a lot had changed since the 2011 World Cup of Curling. For one, Fry joined the trio of Jacobs and his cousins, the Harnden brothers, and fit in like a long-lost relative. Fry previously played with Jeff Stoughton in Winnipeg and Brad Gushue in St. John’s, N.L. He won the National with Team Gushue in 2010 but things eventually didn’t work out. A chance discussion with Team Jacobs during the 2012 Tim Hortons Brier put the wheels in motion.
“We weren’t talking about playing with one another but were just having the discussion of how passionate we were about the game, how we wanted to get to the top of the sport, how we wanted to win a Brier and possibly an Olympics,” E.J. said in an interview prior to the National. “We felt from one another that we were on the same page. We left and went home to Sault Ste. Marie and he went back to Newfoundland and it was literally no more than a couple of months later where he had parted ways with Brad and his team and we had done the same with Scott (Seabrook), who was our lead, and we just came together. It was only a matter of months before that transitioned into playing together and it all stemmed from that one conversation.”
Since then, they’ve won a Brier, a world silver medal, ran the table at the Canadian Olympic Trials and, as previously mentioned, earned Olympic gold. Their homecoming for the National seemed like the key time to finally scratch a Grand Slam title off of the to-do list and E.J. said they wanted to win it “badly.”
The rink struggled a bit in the round-robin stage but powered their way into the playoffs and right on to the final where they ran into the red-hot Team Mike McEwen. The Winnipeg rink, who had won four of five events at that point in the season, were just as eager to come out on top after falling to Gushue in the Masters final earlier that month.
It was a nerve-racking, nail-biter match and again Jacobs was down by two coming home. This time though fate was in his hands as he held the hammer. Jacobs needed an angle raise to tie it and force the extra end but he wasn’t able to make it. Once more, it wasn’t meant to be.
Further playoff exits followed with a quarterfinal loss to Gushue at the Canadian Open in December and a semifinal defeat against Sweden’s Niklas Edin at the Syncrude Elite 10 in March that left Team Jacobs wondering when their time was going to come.
E.J. said after the Players’ Championship that earlier they joked about being curling’s version of Phil Mickelson, who was known for a long time as the best golfer never to win a major. Well, “Lefty” now has five to his credit so anything’s possible.
Team Jacobs finished the round-robin stage of the Players’ Championship with a 4-1 record and earned a bye straight to Sunday morning’s semifinals where they took on Team Brendan Bottcher, with spare Wayne Middaugh at the helm for the playoffs while Bottcher returned home to finish up university. Middaugh, a 15-time Grand Slam champion who stepped back from curling this season, already led the young Edmonton rink past his former (and future) teammate Glenn Howard in a tiebreaker and upset Gushue in the quarterfinals the day before.
Middaugh scored two in the sixth to break a tie and lead 5-3 as it looked like the miracle run of “Team Middaottcher” would continue. Jacobs blanked seven to have hammer coming home and it came down to the final shot as usual. Jacobs came up in the clutch with a double takeout to score three and lift his team to a 6-5 victory. The crowd roared and Team Jacobs, known for wearing their hearts right next to the Goldline logo on their sleeves, were fired up to celebrate.
The final stage was set for the evening main event that saw them face McEwen again. Team McEwen added a few more titles since their National win, including the Syncrude Elite 10, to bring their total to eight. They aimed to win the Players’ Championship to not only cash in big but also complete a career Grand Slam. McEwen ran through the round robin with a 5-0 record to earn the other bye to the semis and defeated Toronto’s John Epping 7-3 to punch his ticket to the final.
Another back-and-forth battle commenced with the teams alternating singles through the first two ends and then matching deuces in the fourth and fifth. McEwen blanked six and seven to hold the hammer coming home and needed to draw in order to win.
The Mattamy Athletic Centre was pin-drop quiet when McEwen entered the hack. The crowd started to applaud as he slid down the ice, the line was there, but the rock was overswept. That was all that was needed in the game of inches for Jacobs to steal the end, the game, and the Players’ Championship.
“It’s one of those shots where I really expected Mike to make it but knew it was going to be a tough shot because the ice was getting a little bit frosty, a little bit fudgy, and as a sweeper I know for myself that’s a tough one to judge,” E.J. said after the game. “It’s unfortunate to win that way and we feel for Mike, that was a tough one. I thought he threw it really well and the shot was made but in the game of curling you’ve got to take it any way you can get it and sometimes it comes out a miss. Fortunately this time it went our way.”
The celebration this time was more subdued, it wasn’t the way they thought they would win their first Grand Slam together, but once the gigantic trophy was in their hands in sunk in: they had finally done it.
“It feels phenomenal,” E.J. said. “It’s so hard to win these events and it’s the one that we’ve never won. It’s very satisfying, very rewarding, and it feels great.”
“A fantastic curling season for us,” Jacobs added. “It’s the best we’ve ever played on the cashspiel circuit. This is the most money we’ve ever won. It’s something that we’ve always tried to get better at. For some reason, we always seem to show up for playdowns and the Season of Champions events but not so much the World Curling Tour events. I’m really proud of the way we played throughout the entire world curling events this year, throughout the Grand Slam series, and to pick up this last win is just huge for us.”
The victory also clinched the Rogers Grand Slam Cup, awarded to the overall points leader in the standings. Jacobs edged McEwen 46-45 to cash in a $75,000 bonus, but the big payout was secondary to the Players’ title.
“We really wanted to win our first Grand Slam. That was the one thing missing on our resume,” E.J. said. “It’s one of those things when you win, the other things come with it. First and foremost, we wanted to win our first Grand Slam and everything else beyond that is gravy.”
So what’s next for the team?
“Summer and throwing no rocks for a few months,” Jacobs said with a laugh. “I think for all of us we need the mental and the physical break. We’ll continue with the business side of the team and whatever needs to get done but curling I think for most of the competitive teams is year-round. It never kind of stops and before you know it the next season is here so (we’ll) spend some time with family and friends and relax a little.”