Jacobs eliminated from Brier contention after playoff loss

Team Jacobs run at the 2022 Tim Hortons Brier came to an end on Friday.

With an opportunity to clinch a spot in the page playoffs on the line, the Jacobs rink dropped a 10-3 decision in seven ends to Saskatchewan’s Colton Flasch on Friday afternoon in the 10-day, 18-team event in Lethbridge, Alta.

The Jacobs rink, which includes skip Brad Jacobs, third Marc Kennedy, second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden, and alternate Jordan Chandler, finished second in Pool B with a 6-2 record to earn a playoff spot.

Flasch beat Matt Dunstone’s wild card team earlier in the day Friday to get into the playoffs and face Jacobs.

“I’m pretty frustrated,” Jacobs told Curling Canada following the game. “That was a really poor performance and not like us.”

“We got outplayed,” a frustrated Jacobs also said. “Flasch’s team played great. I have to hand it to them, I didn’t think they had that type of game in them, and quite frankly, I was waiting for them to give us chances like they gave Dunstone a million times, but they didn’t.”

Flasch opened the scoring with a pair in the opening end with the hammer before stealing one more in the second end to take a 3-0 lead.

After Jacobs got on the board with a single of his own in the third end, Flasch broke the game open with four in the fourth end to take a 7-1 lead.

Jacobs said that’s when the game got away from them.

“When we gave them the open draw for four, it was game over,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs picked up a pair in the fifth end to cut the lead to four, but Flasch proceeded to blank the sixth end before capping off the scoring with three in the seventh end, sealing the win.

“We put rocks in good spots and got a couple of misses and took advantage of it,” Flasch told Curling Canada following the win.

The Flasch rink has reeled off six straight wins since a loss to Team Canada’s Brendan Bottcher left he team at 2-2 through four games.

With the win, Flasch will face Alberta’s Kevin Koe while Bottcher will face Brad Gushue’s wild card team to determine the seeding for page playoff games on Saturday.