Kevin Martin and Glenn Howard have won a combined 31 Grand Slam titles and will face off in the final of the Masters tournament on Sunday afternoon in Abbotsford, B.C.
The two rinks are both off to hot starts this season and are early favourites heading into next month’s Canadian Olympic trials in Winnipeg.
Watch the Masters final Sunday featuring Glenn Howard vs. Kevin Martin on CBC at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT
Let’s take a closer look at each rink and their paths to the championship match.
TEAM HOWARD
Glenn Howard has won five of the last seven Masters tournaments and his rink from Penetanguishene, Ont., is on a roll in its attempt to make win a sixth. Howard went 4-0 in the round-robin portion and cruised past reigning world champion Niklas Edin from Sweden 8-4 in the quarter-finals.
It hasn’t been a complete breeze for Howard though as he required an extra end to top Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton 4-3 on Saturday night in the semifinals.
Key for Howard’s rink is the play of third Wayne Middaugh, who skipped his own squad to a Masters championship in 2003 and helped Howard win his record fifth title in 2011.
Howard ran the table at the Players’ Championship in April with a perfect 7-0 record to earn his 14th career Grand Slam trophy.
TEAM MARTIN
Edmonton’s Kevin Martin may have just one Masters championship in his trophy case but he has something Howard doesn’t: an Olympic gold medal. Martin cleaned house after failing to qualify for the 2006 Turin Games and added John Morris, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert to his rink. The new group won the Canadian Olympic trials in 2009 and captured gold at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver but Morris shocked the squad when he decided to leave and join Jim Cotter’s crew earlier this year.
Coincidentally, veteran curler Dave Nedohin was a “free agent” but decided to take a sabbatical from the sport and look after his kids while his wife Heather pursued her bid for the Olympics. Nedohin, who won four Briers and three world championships with Randy Ferby, initially declined Martin’s offer to join the team at third but changed his mind after his parents convinced him the offer was too good to pass up (they also offered to handle babysitting duties too).
Martin’s team is competing in its first Grand Slam together and they were upset in the opening draw 7-6 in extra ends against China’s Rui Liu. They bounced back, rolled off three consecutive wins to reach the playoffs and beat Calgary’s Kevin Koe 6-3 in an all-Alberta rink quarter-final to set up the rematch against Liu. Martin scored a deuce and gained a pair of stolen singles to avenge the loss with a 4-2 victory.
