THE CANADIAN PRESS
CALGARY — The curling team built with the 2010 Olympics in mind looked well on its way to getting there as Kevin Martin’s team dominated the Canadian men’s championship again.
The Alberta squad formed three years ago went undefeated a second straight year at the Tim Hortons Brier and decisively beat Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton 10-4 to defend its title Sunday.
Martin, third John Morris, Marc Kennedy and lead Ben Hebert will attempt win a second consecutive world championship April 4-12 in Moncton.
Their accomplishments in their short time together is part of the bigger plan of wanting to win the Olympic curling trials Dec. 6 to 13 in Edmonton and represent the host country at the Games in Vancouver.
"Has been for over three years since we put the team together," Martin said. "That’s been our goal.
"It’s all about consistency and we were pretty consistent this week and that bodes well for the future."
Martin, 42, joins Alberta’s Randy Ferbey and Saskatchewan’s Ernie Richardson as the only skips to win four Canadian championships. Martin won in 1991 and 1997 with different teammates and last year with his current squad.
He’s also the seventh skip to win back-to-back Canadian championships and the first since Ferbey in 2002-03.
Martin won an Olympic silver medal with third Don Walchuk, second Carter Rycroft and lead Don Bartlett in 2002. That team disbanded in 2006 and Martin formed a new team with Morris, a two-time world junior champion skip, as his vice.
Alberta ran in front from start to finish at this year’s Brier. The team out of Edmonton’s Saville Sports Centre outscored the opposition 87-38 in the round robin.
After beating Ontario’s Glenn Howard in the Page playoff game between the top two seeds to reach Sunday’s final, Stoughton observed Alberta was "on a little bit of a rampage."
"We prepared as hard as we always do for these big events and I think this is the best I’ve seen Kevin himself play," Morris said. "He’s definitely our MVP."
Martin’s team continued to plunder Sunday and had control of the game by the fourth end when they led 6-1.
Down six points after eight ends, Stoughton performed his trademark 360-degree delivery in the ninth to liven up a lopsided final and then shook hands to end it.
"Hats off to Kevin’s team," the Manitoba skip said. "They played a great game and they’ll do us proud at the worlds.
"We just didn’t get the rocks in there. We missed a couple of draws early and they made some great ones but what can you say? They played a great game."
Stoughton left the Pengrowth Saddledome immediately after the game. A Canadian Curling Association spokesman then revealed that the Manitoba skip’s father Jack had suffered a mild heart attack prior to the final. Jack was taken to hospital and was said to be well enough to watch the final on television.
Known for his ability to clear the house of opposition stones with one throw, Martin instead employed finesse to take a commanding lead. He executed gentle taps-outs to score three in the second end and another with his first shot of the fourth to set up his raise takeout for another three-pointer.
"I was pretty focused today," Martin said. "I didn’t want to lose sight of what we wanted and it went well."
Alberta’s Pat Ryan (1985, 1988), Manitoba’s Vic Peters (1997), Ferbey (2003) and Martin (2008) have skipped the only other undefeated teams in the Brier’s 80-year history.
Elsewhere in curling Sunday, Winnipeg’s Kaitlyn Lawes, the daughter of Manitoba third Kevin Park, lost 8-6 to Scotland and Charlottetown’s Brett Gallant fell 9-6 to Denmark in their respective finals of the world junior championships in Vancouver.
While Martin and Kennedy hail from Edmonton, Hebert makes his home in Calgary and Morris in nearby Chestermere, so the Saddledome was happy to claim the four as their own during the tournament.
Martin owns a retail curling store, Morris is a fireman, Kennedy runs a meat shop and Hebert is a marketing representative for a surveying company.
Martin and company extended their record winning streak at the Brier to 26 straight with Sunday’s win. The $144,000 in Sport Canada funding over two years they earned last year for their victory will be extended by one more year.
Martin and Howard have the only two men’s teams that have secured berths to the Olympic trials.
Martin wanted his team to execute in front of a raucous home crowd as the Saddledome simulated conditions they’ll face in both Edmonton and Vancouver. He’s looking forward to the world championships because it means getting games against other countries.
"There’s one thing we’ll be talking about in the next while and that’s getting the team to play some more international events," he said.
It was the 24th Brier win for Alberta. Manitoba leads with 26 and the province’s last was Stoughton’s win in 1999.
Notes: Halifax will host the 2010 Tim Hortons Brier . . . Calgary’s total attendance was 246,126, which puts it third all time. The record is 281,985 set in Edmonton in 2005 . . . . Martin, Ontario third Richard Hart, Kennedy and Hebert were named to the first all-star team. Ontario’s Howard, Morris, Quebec’s Eric Sylvain and Manitoba’s Steve Gould were selected second all stars.