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 sliding ...

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

. The winning team represented Canada at the 2018 World Men's Curling Championship 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 hom ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...

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 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. 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 C ...

, 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 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 (

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 Michael "Mike" Fournier (born November 24, 1971) is a Canadian curler originally from Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec. He currently skips his own team out of Toronto, Ontario. Career Fournier played in his first Quebec Tankard in 2014 at the 2 ...

(

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, 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 ...

), and Greg Smith (

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

) 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 tota ...

's Brad Gushue 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 The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

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 The Fort Rouge Curling Club is a curling club located in the Fort Rouge district of Winnipeg, Manitoba. History The Fort Rouge Curling Club joined the Manitoba Curling Association in 1915, while the Fort Rouge Ladies Curling Club was one of th ...

'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: Brad Gushue, Team Canada *Third: Mark Nichols, Team Canada *Second:

Brett Gallant Brett Philip Gallant (born February 18, 1990 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island) is a Canadian curler from Calgary. He currently plays second for the Brendan Bottcher rink. Career Juniors Gallant has represented Prince Edward Island in the ...

, Team Canada *Lead: Denni Neufeld, Team Wildcard ''Second Team'' *Skip: John Epping, 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 * Brad Gushue, 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