The 2018

Tim Hortons Brier The Tim Hortons Brier, or simply (and more commonly) the Brier (''french: Le Brier''), is the annual Canadian men's curling championship, sanctioned by Curling Canada. The current event name refers to its main sponsor, the Tim Hortons coffee and ...

, Canada's national men's

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns slidi ...

championship, was held from March 3 to 11, 2018 at the

Brandt Centre The Brandt Centre (formerly the Regina Agridome) is an indoor arena at REAL District in Regina, Saskatchewan. Built in 1977, it is the home arena for the WHL's Regina Pats. It is owned by the city of Regina and operated by the Regina Exhibitio ...

in Regina,

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

. The winning team represented Canada at the

2018 World Men's Curling Championship The 2018 World Men's Curling Championship (branded as the 361˚ World Men's Curling Championship 2018 for sponsorship reasons) was held from March 31 to April 8, 2018 at Orleans Arena, on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. ...

from March 31 to April 8 at the

Orleans Arena Orleans Arena is a 9,500-seat multi-purpose arena in Paradise, Nevada, in the Las Vegas Valley. It is located at the Orleans Hotel and Casino and is operated by Coast Casinos, a subsidiary of Boyd Gaming Corporation. The arena is the home t ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. This marked the fifth time the Brier was held in Regina, the first time since 2006. The 2018 tournament was the first to use a new 16-team format, featuring representation by all fourteen member associations of

Curling Canada Curling Canada (formerly the Canadian Curling Association (CCA)) is a sanctioning body for the sport of Curling in Canada. It is associated with more than a dozen provincial and territorial curling associations across the country, and organizes ...

, alongside the defending champions (as Team Canada), and a new

wildcard Wild card most commonly refers to: * Wild card (cards), a playing card that substitutes for any other card in card games * Wild card (sports), a tournament or playoff place awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal pla ...

team. As part of this new format, the Bronze medal game was removed from the schedule.

Teams

Curling Canada introduced a new 16-team format for both the Brier and

Tournament of Hearts The Scotties Tournament of Hearts (''french: Le Tournoi des Cœurs Scotties''; commonly referred to as the Scotties) is the annual Canadian women's curling championship, sanctioned by Curling Canada, formerly called the Canadian Curling Associat ...

for 2018, under which all 14 member associations of Curling Canada are now represented in the main field, rather than being limited by a pre-qualifying tournament. The teams were divided into two pools for round robin play, after which the top four teams from each advanced to a Championship Pool. Alongside the inclusion of the previous year's champions as Team Canada, the final spot in the tournament was filled by a

play-in game A play-in gameTh ...

held on the Friday before the tournament. The rinks of

John Epping John Allan Epping (born March 20, 1983) is a Canadian curler from Toronto, Ontario. He currently skips his own team out of the Leaside Curling Club in East York, Toronto. Career Born in Peterborough, Ontario, Epping was a top junior curler, h ...

(

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

), Mike Fournier (

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

), and Greg Smith (

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic Canada, Atlantic region. The province comprises t ...

) made their Brier debuts. Team

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Brad Gushue Bradley Raymond Gushue, ONL ( ; born June 16, 1980) is a Canadian curler from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Gushue, along with teammates Russ Howard, Mark Nichols, Jamie Korab and Mike Adam, represented Canada in curling at the 2006 W ...

set a new record for the most Canadian national men's championship game wins as a skip when he skipped the 114th victory of his Brier career over the Northwest Territories on March 5.

CTRS ranking

Wildcard game

play-in game A play-in gameTh ...

was held on March 2, 2018 that determined the wildcard team that rounded out the tournament field. It was played between the top two teams on the Canadian Team Ranking System standings who lost in their provincial championship: the Fort Rouge Curling Club's Mike McEwen rink and the Granite Curling Club's

Jason Gunnlaugson Jason Gunnlaugson is a Canadian curler currently living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Gunnlaugson is known for having been hired by the Russian Curling Federation (RCF) to represent the country at the 2014 Winter Olympics. The deal which was announce ...

rink, both from

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

. ;CTRS standings as of February 12 ;Wildcard Game ''Friday, March 2, 19:00''

Round-robin standings

Round-robin results

All draw times are listed in Central Standard Time ( UTC−06:00).

Draw 1

''Saturday, March 3, 14:00''

Draw 2

''Saturday, March 3, 19:00''

Draw 3

''Sunday, March 4, 09:00''

Draw 4

''Sunday, March 4, 14:00''

Draw 5

''Sunday, March 4, 19:00''

Draw 6

''Monday, March 5, 09:00''

Draw 7

''Monday, March 5, 14:00''

Draw 8

''Monday, March 5, 19:00''

Draw 9

''Tuesday, March 6, 09:00''

Draw 10

''Tuesday, March 6, 14:00''

Draw 11

''Tuesday, March 6, 19:00''

Draw 12

''Wednesday, March 7, 09:00''

Draw 13

''Wednesday, March 7, 14:00''

Draw 14

''Wednesday, March 7, 19:00''

Placement round

Each team that finished fifth through eight in their pool played the team that finished in the same position in the opposite pool for the purpose of determining final tournament ranking. For example, the winner of the game between fifth place teams was ranked ninth place overall, the loser of that game was ranked tenth place, and so on.

Seeding games

All game times are listed in Central Standard Time ( UTC−06:00).

A5 vs. B5

''Friday, March 9, 09:00''

A6 vs. B6

''Friday, March 9, 09:00''

A7 vs. B7

''Friday, March 9, 09:00''

A8 vs. B8

''Friday, March 9, 09:00''

Championship pool standings

All wins and losses earned in the round robin (including results against teams that failed to advance) were carried forward into the Championship Pool.

Championship pool results

All draw times are listed in Central Standard Time ( UTC−06:00).

Draw 15

''Thursday, March 8, 14:00''

Draw 16

''Thursday, March 8, 19:00''

Draw 17

''Friday, March 9, 14:00''

Draw 18

''Friday, March 9, 19:00''

Playoffs

1 vs. 2

''Saturday, March 10, 19:00''

3 vs. 4

''Saturday, March 10, 14:00''

Semifinal

''Sunday, March 11, 09:00''

Final

''Sunday, March 11, 16:00''

Statistics

Top 5 player percentages

''Final Round Robin Percentages; minimum 6 games''

Perfect games

''Round Robin and Championship Pool only''

Awards

The awards and all-star teams are listed as follows: ;All-Star Teams ''First Team'' *Skip:

, Team Canada *Third: Mark Nichols, Team Canada *Second: Brett Gallant, Team Canada *Lead:

Denni Neufeld Dennison "Denni" Neufeld (born January 25, 1981) is a Canadian curler from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Born in Steinbach, Manitoba, Neufeld won a gold medal for Manitoba at the 1999 Canada Games. In 2001 he joined Mike McEwen's team. After a few years ...

, Team Wildcard ''Second Team'' *Skip:

, Ontario *Third: Steve Laycock, Saskatchewan *Second: E.J. Harnden, Northern Ontario *Lead: Geoff Walker, Team Canada ;Ross Harstone Sportsmanship Award * Greg Smith, Newfoundland and Labrador Skip ;Paul McLean Award *Murray McCormick, ''

Regina Leader-Post The ''Regina Leader-Post'' is the daily newspaper of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, and a member of the Postmedia Network. Founding The newspaper was first published as ''The Leader'' in 1883 by Nicholas Flood Davin, soon after Edgar Dewdney, ...

'' ;Hec Gervais Most Valuable Player Award *

, Team Canada Skip

Notes

References

External links

Official website
{{2017–18 curling season 2018 in Canadian curling The Brier Sports competitions in Regina, Saskatchewan 2018 in Saskatchewan Curling in Saskatchewan