1-2 game delivers a memorable contest

Brad Jacobs and Brad Gushue put on quite a show last night in the 1 vs. 2 game on Friday night, with the two Olympic champs making great shot after great shot. The Northern Ontario boys were especially hot, delivering some molar-rattling doubles and triples. However it was a soft-weight tap for three in the fifth end that proved to be the big shot of the game. 

Jacobs told Daniel Austin of the Calgary Sun that he was looking for this game most of the week. Despite sailing along with just a single round-robin loss, he thought this was a break-out contest.

“I think we were all waiting to kind of explode this week,” Jacobs said. “We’ve been playing so well that I haven’t really had any tough shots, to be honest with you, for points. 

“We finally had a tough one and we needed it because our spirits were low and that picked us right back up.”

And if that shot in the fifth was huge for deciding the game, what happened immediately after was eye-popping. A massive, testosterone-infused celebration that started with a Jacobs' fist-pump, and a big high-five with E.J. Harnden, who recounted that moment to George Johnson of the Calgary Herald.  

“All of us,’’ said third E.J. Harnden, “wanted to let some emotion out. We wanted to leave everything out there, we wanted to give everything we had because we knew how important this game was. 

“To see that excitement, that intensity, that’s what our team is built on. It’s awesome for TV, awesome for our sport. What we do well, is show that emotion, display, then bring it back down again, stay calm. 

“Get back to business.’’

The celebration caused a few raised eyebrows on social media, including one from a former Brier competitor.

Any one else cringe when NONT does that whole weird celebration thing?
— James Grattan (@JamesGrattan) March 7, 2015

Gushue, by the way, was pretty darn good too, making a sensational triple but also missing a couple of key shots. Still, as Jacobs said in Donna Spencer's CP article, it was quite the spectacle.

"That's one heck of a curling game," the Northern Ontario skip said. "If you're sitting at home watching it on TV or here in the building, you got your money's worth."