Ferbey wins nail-biter to reach final
Canadian Press
4/9/2005
VICTORIA (CP) - They did it again.
Randy Ferbey's Edmonton rink needed another heart-pounding finish to move into Sunday's gold medal game at the Ford World Curling Championship.
Ferbey's crew trailed by one point after nine but scored three points in the 10th end when German skip Andy Kapp missed on a last-rock takeout, giving Canada an 8-6 win in Saturday's semifinal.
The Edmonton rink will now try to win their third world title in four years against Scotland's David Murdoch. Since 1968 Canada has won 21 world titles.
Ferbey was left shaking his head after Canada used an opponent's miss to win a match for the fourth time in five games.
"It's amazing," said Ferbey.
"I don't have an answer for it. It's definitely entertaining for the fans. We're not trying to do it like that, but it's good for our sport."
Making the final is even more special since Canada's back has been against the wall since Thursday. Since then the team has reeled off seven straight wins.
"It's pretty amazing that we've made the gold medal game," said David Nedohin, the third who throws skip stones.
"We sort of had some ups and downs all week. We've had our backs to the wall for seven straight games where we couldn't lose. To win the seven in a row and have a chance at the gold medal is fabulous."
Scottish skip David Murdoch said its the final everyone wanted.
"We wanted those guys to win," said the farmer from Lockerbie, playing in his first men's world championship.
"It's going to make it such a big game it's going to be absolutely electric in here. It's a dream final."
Nedohin expects the Scots will try to play a low scoring game.
"We'll have to be aggressive with them, force the issues with them," he said.
"We'll hopefully force Murdoch to make some tough draws and some tough shots against a lot of counters. We're going to be aggressive and go after them."
Murdoch, who lost 8-4 to Canada during the round robin, knows he'd better bring some big rocks Sunday.
"It's going to be David against Goliath, I think," he laughed.
Ferbey's rink made it harder on themselves than they needed Saturday.
With the game tied 5-5 after eight ends, all Canada needed to do was blank the ninth, then score in the 10th with the hammer.
That plan went off the rails when Nedohin made an uncharacteristic miss on an open takeout with his final rock. That allowed Germany to steal the point and take a 6-5 lead.
Ferbey kept the hammer.
With the time clock ticking down to zero, Kapp attempted to takeout two Canadian stones with his last rock in the 10th. His shot was a hair wide.
"We just had bad shooting," said Kapp, who earned his third world championship bronze medal.
"They just played well in the last end and the whole game. The most important thing is to put a good show on. All game long it was exciting. They are a great team. We got them close."
Nedohin said the Canadians weren't nervous trailing after nine.
"It wasn't the end of the world being one down," he said.
"I'd almost rather do that. We were confident in the 10th end."
Ferbey advanced to the semifinal after a nail-biting 7-6 win over Norway's Pal Trulsen in Friday's playoff.
Germany lost 8-7 to Scotland Friday night.
Under the Page Playoff system used at the championship, Scotland advanced to Sunday's final.
The 5,600-seat Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre was filled for the semifinal game. Fans wore hats shaped like curling rocks and had Maple Leafs painted on their faces. A pair of German flags looked lonely waving at one end of the arena.
Canada finished the round-robin portion of the 12-team championship in a six-way tie for first place with a 8-3 record. Ferbey's first task Friday morning was defeating Finland's Markku Uusipaavalniemi 9-5 in nine ends in a tiebreaker.
Ferbey's rink of Nedohin, 31, Scott Pfeifer, 28, and Marcel Rocque, 33, have won the Brier four times in the last five years. After failing to win a medal in 2001, they returned to win back-to-back crowns in 2002 and 2003.
Ferbey, 45, was also third on the Pat Ryan rink that won the worlds in 1989 after finishing second in 1988.
