Marc Kennedy of St. Albert is only two wins away from going to his sixth Brier with the Kevin Martin rink.
Thursday’s 7-3 win over Jamie King of St. Albert in the A final in Lacombe put the defending provincial champions in the Page playoff A-B game tonight at 6:30 p.m.
The loser plays in the Sunday’s 9 a.m. semifinal and the winner advances to the 2 p.m. final. It will be aired at 5 p.m. on Sportsnet.
Since 2008, when the current 12-team triple-knockout format was established, the A winner has gone 5-0 as provincial champions.
The Brier is March 1 to 9 in Kamloops.
Another trip to the Brier would add to Kennedy’s legacy as a future Canadian Curling Hall of Fame inductee. The two-time Brier winner, 2008 world champion and 2010 Olympic gold medallist with Martin, John Morris and Ben Hebert was a Brier first team all-star second in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011 and second-team all-star selection in 2013.
In the A final Martin made a draw for three in the first end after Blake MacDonald, last-rock thrower for King, hit a guard while attempting a freeze.
A deuce in three and a steal of one in four made it 6-1. The teams shook hands after King scored one in seven.
Martin, with third Dave Nedohin and the front-end tandem of Kennedy and Hebert, reached the A final with wins of 5-4 against Matt Blandford (SACA B) and 10-8 against Brendan Bottcher (NACA A).
Martin scored the winner against Blandford in 10 with the hammer and stole one in 10 against Bottcher.
King, who throws lead rocks and calls the game for MacDonald, Scott Pfeifer and Jeff Erickson, needed an extra end to edge Mark Johnson (PCA B) 6-5 and pulled off a deuce in 10 to defeat Wade White (NACA B), with Dan Holowaychuk of St. Albert at second, 7-4, en route to the A final.
Friday afternoon King played Blandford in the B semifinals and the winner would face Johnson or Charley Thomas (SACA C) in the B final that night. Scores were unavailable at press time.
The two C finals go at 1 p.m. today. The winners meet in the Page playoff C-D game at 6:30 p.m. for the right to play the loser of the A-B playoff Sunday.
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The Bellerose Bulldogs have home-floor advantage as hosts for the metro Edmonton cheer team zones Friday night.
The Bulldogs will compete in the large squad division.
The 17-team meet includes the St. Albert Skyhawks in the small squad division and the Paul Kane Blues in the co-ed squad division.
The parade of athletes starts at 7 p.m. and the competition begins at 7:15 p.m. The Bulldogs perform at 7:45 p.m., the Skyhawks at 8 p.m. and Paul Kane at 8:25 p.m.
The awards presentation goes at 8:50 p.m.
The top two teams in each division advance to provincials, March 21 to 22 at Harry Ainlay High School.
Last year the Bulldogs finished second in large squad behind the Harry Ainlay Titans at zones and provincials.
Last weekend the Bulldogs placed second at the Athabasca CheerFest.
The Bellerose cheer team consists of 20 females and one male and 15 Bulldogs are returnees from last year.
This is the 15th year for the cheer team at Bellerose.
The Sturgeon Valley Golf & Country Club is seeking applications for head professional after Jason Hnatiw accepted the same position at the Windermere Golf & Country Club.
There were 60 applicants from across Canada who applied to be the Windermere head professional and after short listing and two interviews, Hnatiw was the successful candidate.
Hnatiw spent the past three years at Sturgeon Valley. His last day is Feb. 16.
