ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Brad Gushue’s Brier is over, three wins short of a fairytale finish on home ice, marking the end of an incomparable career.
And leave it to his long-time rival, reigning Olympic and national champion Brad Jacobs, to hand Gushue his final defeat and eliminate the hometown team from contention with a 7-5 win.
On Saturday afternoon, Gushue, Mark Nichols, Brendan Bottcher and Geoff Walker lost the page 3/4 playoff game to Jacobs’s Team Canada in front of a sold-out crowd at Mary Brown’s Centre, more than 6,000 fans who witnessed what turned out to be the end of an incredible era in the sport.
Gushue, 45, is retiring after winning everything there is to win, including a record six Briers, 2006 Olympic gold, 2022 Olympic bronze, 2017 world championships and 15 Grand Slam titles.
Gushue’s career not only ends at home, but in the very building where he won his first-ever national title back in 2017. Gushue won his first Tankard on his 14th try, more than a decade after he won Olympic gold.
This 2026 Montana’s Brier was Gushue’s 23rd and the skip took time to soak in the crowd, knowing this could be the final time he brought his hometown fans to their feet. In the second end when he nailed a double takeout, Gushue pumped his fist and scanned the arena with a smile on his face, watching as the fans lost it.
After Gushue made an incredible run-back double in the fifth end, Jacobs asked: “Why is he retiring?” Gushue then drew the button against two, tying the game 2-2 at the break.
But the momentum shifted an end later, and left Gushue chasing. Gushue, who’d been perfect on his draws all game, rubbed a guard on his last to leave Jacobs with a takeout for at least a pair. The skipper from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., nailed it, leaving his shooter in play, scoring three and taking a commanding 5-2 lead.
Gushue answered back with a pair in seven to shrink Canada’s lead to one and held Jacobs to a single in eight, but couldn’t convert to score a pair or more in nine, in large part because Canada’s third, Marc Kennedy, made some clutch hit-and-rolls.
After settling for a single, Gushue needed to steal two in 10 for the win, and came up short.
Jacobs, Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert, who won Olympic gold for Canada less than two weeks ago, are now into the semi-final. They’ll face the loser of Alberta’s Kevin Koe and Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone, who play later Saturday. The winner of that game goes straight to Sunday night’s final.
Unlike nine years ago in this very building, that final won’t feature Gushue and his Team Newfoundland and Labrador. But this day was coming — the end, for Gushue — and everyone in St. John’s was getting ready to say goodbye, with signs hanging all over the city featuring a picture of the skipper doing a fist-pump along with the words: “A Champion’s Farewell.”
More to come.
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