1999 Brier
SLAM! Sports
SLAM! Curling
1999 BRIER
ON THE ROCKS
INTERACTIVE
ALSO ON SLAM!
Hunka on ice
Alberta team exits with heads held high
The host is toast.
OK. Maybe not mathematically.
In this wild and wacky conclusion to the biggest and best Brier ever, there is probably some crazy, cockeyed combination of results in today's final draw that could put him in a six-team tie-breaker or something.
"I doubt it,'' said Hunka when he walked off the ice after losing to Newfoundland.
Yes, Newfoundland.
There were some tantalizing twists and turns yesterday that included Quebec also losing to Newfoundland. B.C. lost to P.E.I.. Saskatchewan beat Manitoba.
And if this isn't the most interesting Brier of all time, I'd like one of the older-than-dirt curmudgeons on the press bench to tell me exactly which one was.
Wednesday is traditionally moving day at the Brier. It was Saskatchewan, 6-1 since losing their first two games, moving up and Alberta moving out.
"Ah, it's kinda disappointing,'' said Hunka. "I thought we had a good chance to get to the playoffs. But it didn't happen.''
Hunka won his first two. But he didn't manage to win two in the same day the rest of the way. And the two losses yesterday meant the man who had started 30 straight seasons with a 'Brier Or Bust' enthusiasm, had gone bust at the Brier.
MIND-BOGGLING
As this mind-boggling regulation round goes does to the final day and the final three draws of the regular round, an amazing total of five teams are tied at 6-3.
Ken Hunka isn't one of them.
Two more teams are tied at 5-4.
Ken Hunka isn't one of them, either.
You get the picture. He's back with Northern Ontario at 4-5.
He's a Hunka, Hunka history.
"It's 10 days I'll never forget,'' he said.
"And I don't think the boys will either.
"We've had a great experience here. It's been a blast, an absolute blast.''
The 48-year-old throwback to another era of the roaring game said he thought of his father, who died last year, a lot during the week. And he said he thought of him again when he walked off the ice last night. "He'd have been proud.''
Hunka said he always dreamed of going to a Brier somewhere other than Edmonton. But he says even though it ended up that he disappointed the hometown fans and took himself out of a ticket-selling position for the organizing committee the rest of the way, he's thrilled it happened here.
"I don't think we put any undue pressure on ourselves and I don't think the crowd put any undue pressure on us. People called down a lot of things from the crowd which I'll always remember, although I'm not supposed to be listening to them. I'll remember the ovations we got, for the rest of my life.''
Hunka says his rinkmates shouldn't look back and second-guess anything.
"I'm not disappointed with the way we played. We played better up in Grande Prairie to get here. But that's the way curling goes. This is a longer grind. And this is the Brier.''
Hunka says he won't look back on this five, 10 or 20 years from now and wish they'd done something different. "No,'' he said emphatically.
"We lost three or four games that were real tight. That's the only way to look at it. I don't think we disgraced ourselves.''
There are those in the stands and particularly along press row who wonder what could have been if third Brent MacDonald hadn't soiled the sheets somewhat in the middle of this. But the guy who started the season as the skip of this rink and demoted himself in favor of Hunka did bounce back a bit.
"Brent picked up his game,'' said Hunka.
"He played well.''
STRUGGLED
Eleventh among thirds statistically, MacDonald struggled some particularly in key situations.
"Sometimes arena ice can make you look awful bad,'' said coach Jules Owchar of MacDonald, who had three phenomenal misses in the late ends on opening night from which Hunka bailed him out, to beat Jeff Stoughton of Manitoba. You could see his lack of confidence in his body language the next couple of days.
"The kids played well,'' Owchar said of lead Wade Johnson (ranked sixth) and second Blake MacDonald (ranked third). "They held their own with any other front end here.''
And Hunka himself certainly can leave this Brier with his head held high.
Hunka, after Draw 14 last night, was fifth at 80 per cent. Alberta as a team was also ranked fifth statistically at the end of Black Wednesday. But some things don't show up on a scoresheet.
Owchar says the problem was that they didn't get the big shots.
"Kenny made a lot of big shots to save us and get us out of trouble. But we had a lot of big shots against us. Bonus shots. We didn't get many of those. We'd get a nose hit and they'd hit and go behind a guard.''
But when all was said and done it was a magic carpet ride for Hunka.
And our local curling mouldy-oldie took us all along for the ride. Edmonton, be sure to pay him tribute when he throws his last rock tonight.