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Today marks the 10-year anniversary of Brad Gushue, Mark Nichols, Russ Howard, Jamie Korab and Mike Adam winning the 2005 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in Halifax to earn the right to represent Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

It was an unbelievable run at the Trials for a team deemed to have “no chance” — Gushue charged through the round robin with an 8-1 record and capped it all off with an 8-7 victory over Jeff Stoughton in the final.

In Part 3, let’s take a look at how Team Gushue pulled it off.

Brent Laing, Team Howard, second: The Olympic Trials is just such a different event than anything else. It’s exactly the same as the Canada Cup in the format, the time of year and everything else but the feel of it and the tension there and just how different it is from any other event — you can definitely feel it walking into the building, even at the pre-event meeting and at how all of the games, the intensity is different, guys are tighter than normal. In general you don’t see the shot-making that you see in normal curling with the same teams. The pressure is just that intense. When it comes to Canada and getting to not just the world championship but the Olympic championship and the Olympics is so different. You always have the best teams in Canada. Whereas at the Brier you might have four or five of the best, at the Olympic Trials those are the best teams leading into those Olympics, the best teams in Canada, and most often the best teams in the world. It’s a different event, lots of pressure and lots of crazy things happen there. I’ve been on the wrong end of a couple crazy ones just giving up some big ends, but it’s just a totally different experience and one that’s a lot of fun to play in but it just can’t really be explained.

The 2005 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials got the juggernaut meeting out of the way early with front-runners Randy Ferbey and Kevin Martin facing off in the first men’s draw. Martin scored four in the seventh end and held on to win 8-5, but neither team got on a roll and finished out of the playoffs with identical 4-5 records.

Laing: It was the Ferbey-Martin Trials that year and that was what everybody wanted to talk about. As what quite often happens in the Trials it didn’t turn out that way at all. They didn’t have good weeks. They played each other in the first game of the week and from there neither team played all that well.

Mark Kennedy, Team Morris, second: As you’ve seen over the years at the Olympic Trials funny things happen. There’s a lot of pressure on the teams and you need to have a good week. I remember Kevin played Randy in the first game and there was so much hype and so much on the line for that one game I think it took a lot out of both of those teams. Kevin won the game, Randy lost and then both teams were never really the same for the rest of the week, which made it open for anyone else to win it. Brad certainly stepped up and played really well that week.

Richard Hart, Team Howard, third: Both of those teams had bad weeks and it’s hard to put your finger on why that was but they drew each other first game and I think the two of them were both so focused on that first game. There may have been a letdown by both of them afterwards. … Ferbey started 1-2 and never got better after that.

Brad Gushue, with 49-year-old curling legend Russ Howard playing second and calling the game, opened the Trials with a 9-7 victory over Glenn Howard in a match pitting brother against brother. Team Howard scored a three-ender in six to grab a 6-4 advantage but it was all Gushue from there as he took two in seven to tie it and stole a pair in eight for the lead.

Laing: We played Gushue first, which was a little bit odd because Russ came in to play. We made a strategy error where we, especially Craig and I, talked Glenn into playing a shot in I think the seventh end we shouldn’t have played and Gushue made a good one on his last and end up getting a deuce there and kind of took control of the game but we were still learning how to perform at that level as a team.

Hart: We played Gushue first game. It was a close game, we were tied with hammer playing eight and gave up a two-steal in eight and they went on to win the game. It’s funny when you look back at that one end and how huge it was for us and how our week went and how huge it was for Gushue and how their week went. If we had went on to take one in that eighth end or even take two and win that game, Brad’s week might have been totally different and our week might have been totally different but that’s what curlers do. We look back at things after the fact and you can never tell but I can say that most of the events that have been successful for myself and our team usually start with a win in that first game so we always feel like that first game is so important and I can only imagine a young team like Gushue winning that first game against us was a real jump-start for them.

Glenn Howard, Team Howard, skip: Right off the bat you want to get off to a good start and you just never know. You want to win that first game when you get out of the gate and it’s tough and if you lose that one then you feel like you’re behind the 8-ball because Gushue probably wasn’t one of the favourites at the time and you want to put as many wins as you can under your belt and get to that final. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

The two local favourites — Halifax’s Mark Dacey and Shawn Adams — struggled out of the gate. As they both finished with 3-6 records, the East Coast fans turned their support and rallied around Gushue and his St. John’s based crew. Gushue’s father Ray proudly wore a “Brad’s Dad” orange t-shirt while his mother Maureen, who was battling cancer at the time, also came out to support him. The crowd roared when Gushue made an incredible shot to score four in the ninth end to win 7-4 over Jeff Stoughton, who said the young team had “no chance” to win the Trials.

Mark Nichols, Team Gushue, third: Oh it was so cool. We love having that crowd support. Being in Eastern Canada and Atlantic Canada, I guess we were kind of the adopted sons after a while. You go out onto the ice and you can hear people cheer for you, cheering for great shots, trying to motivate you and egg you on. It was great to feel that support from everyone in the arena.

Brad Gushue, Team Gushue, skip: With the fan response and the shirts with “Brad’s Dad” and “Brad’s Fan” and all that stuff, it came about just playing in Halifax. Once Mark Dacey and Shawn Adams were eliminated, we were taken on as the hometown team and we had a huge contingent from Newfoundland fly up, hundreds of people, and they all went out and bought orange garbage bags because we had those horrible orange uniforms. The support was overwhelming, as good as probably even the home events that we play in, because there were so many people from home and people that were cheering for us.

Nichols: We had those ugly orange uniforms. When you first look at them you’re like holy cow those are bright compared to everything else out on the ice. It kind of worked out really well because as we started playing really well you started looking up and you could really distinguish who was cheering for you and who’s not. Seeing all those, whether they were bright orange t-shirts or garbage bags or anything like that, towards the end of the week it started to fill up for sure.

Laing: They came out and proved that they belonged there and played really well and got that momentum on their side. It wasn’t a hometown crowd being in Halifax but it turned out to be basically a Gushue hometown crowd.

Team Howard just missed the playoffs, finishing tied for fourth with Pat Ryan at 5-4 records.

Howard: Overall, not too bad. I think the fact that it was a new team, a year or two into the life of our team, we were pretty pleased. You want to win though and you’re never satisfied unless you come out with that gold medal around your neck or the W or the trophy over your head. You’re never satisfied because if you aren’t, I don’t think you should be playing. It was a learning curve. We learned a little bit more about each other and obviously we put that together and tried to move on to the next coming few years.

Laing: We had an okay week, certainly had a chance to make the playoffs but just lost a couple key games along the way. We had a bad hogline violation against Stoughton. It’s amazing looking back how much I remember because it’s so long, it’s 10 years on now. … We played okay, not as well as we would have hoped but we learned a lot. That was a big stepping stone for our team moving forward into the Brier later that year, and a great week at the Brier until the last game. That was the start of our team learning what it took to win on the big stage.

Team Gushue and Team Morris both got off to hot starts with 6-1 records, but they split off into different directions from there on the final day of the round robin. Morris faced Howard before taking on Gushue in a match to determine who would get the direct bye to the final.

Gushue: All of the stars seemed to align for us that week. We played well, we had some other teams struggle against us. We didn’t catch many bad breaks, didn’t get many great breaks either, but we made all of our shots. Things just got on a roll and confidence built. By the middle of the week we felt we could beat anybody. It was a fun feeling going into every game.

Nichols: You just try to keep doing everything that you were doing to stay in that groove that you were in. We were big on routines and consistency and trying not to change too much going from event to event leading up to the Trials and then once we got to the Trials we tried to keep doing that. You obviously try not to think about the end result but it became harder and harder as we kept winning. You keep thinking about what could happen but I think we did a very good job of keeping it simple as possible and just going out and trying to make a lot of shots.

Kennedy: We started to play really well, especially John and Kevin. We got off to a really good start, I think we started 5-1 and the one loss was to Ferbey. We were actually up one with (the hammer) playing the eighth end so it was a game we could have won as well but the rest of the games we controlled. We were never really down all week.

Laing: It was unfortunate because John had a really easy shot to beat us in the 10th end. Basically an open hit with a catcher on one side and he overcurled, which John never misses the wrong ways. He’s one the smartest players I’ve ever played with when it comes to that kind of stuff. He threw a bad one and then in the extra end they had the hammer but really didn’t have a shot coming to the last rock in the end and we stole the win. Those are momentum changes, they were obviously riding high and looking to get the bye to the final and that cost them the bye to the final and they never did really recover. Obviously I’ve talked to Marc, Kevin and Ben about it, having spent so much time with them the last year and a half, but it’s an interesting thing. It’s one of those things in those big events that little things here and there go a long way and momentum is a huge part of those weeks.

Howard: That happens. It’s one of those fields where you just couldn’t take anybody lightly. You had to go out there and try to play your best against the best and you never know. If you told me who we were going to beat and who we were going to lose to, I’d say I doubt it before we’d even get there but lo and behold it just sort of unfolds.

Kennedy: What happened to us later in the week is we had run out of gas. We had two big games on the last day of the round robin, we were 6-1 and we played Glenn Howard in the morning and Brad Gushue in the evening. We had Howard beat and we kind of gave that one away and got in a little bit of a bad mental place going into that game against Gushue because if we beat Gushue we’re into the final. I remember personally, by that time we were tired and a little grumpy and you could start to see the wheels coming off a bit. That was a learning experience for us because the Trials are such a long week. It’s a long week mentally, it’s a long week physically and I remember finishing those Olympic Trials and thinking I have to be better prepared for a long week, mentally and physically. I can’t get tired and grumpy at the end of the week like I did in Halifax because it certainly cost us an opportunity to maybe go to the Olympics.

Gushue: We got them at the end of the week when we were really cruising. When we played them, the winner was guaranteed a bye to the final so our game against them was big. Fortunately we got off to a good start and ended up winning that game.

Team Gushue (8-1) earned the bye directly to the final while Team Morris (6-3) faced Team Stoughton (7-2) in the semifinal. Team Morris’s skid continued as they fell behind early against Stoughton, trailing 6-1 after five ends. Morris charged back late in the second half but Stoughton held on to win 8-6.

Kennedy: We lost to Jeff in the semi, I think we got down 6-1 and then we came back and made a game of it.

Gushue: I was actually cheering for (John) in the semi because I didn’t want that whole karma match against Jeff. To be honest it was a little bit too much drama for my liking but he got beat there against Jeff. A good week for a young team at a Trials.

The karma match final was set between Gushue and Stoughton. The teams alternated deuces through the first two ends to keep it tight early. Gushue added another pair in the third end and stole two points in four to take a 6-2 lead. Stoughton scored deuces in five and eight while Gushue was forced to one in six but remained in the lead 7-6 with two ends to play. Gushue settled for another single in nine and held Stoughton to a point coming home to secure the 8-7 victory and the right to represent Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympic in Turin, Italy.

Nichols: You’re playing one game, winner take all. It’s something that you think about, dream about as a curler growing up to get your chance to go to the Olympics. You just go out there and try to just lay it all on the line, work as hard as you can and all those silly cliches but it’s true. You try not to think about it but it’s always there in the back of your mind. We were just lucky enough that we played really well at the beginning of the game and kind of hung on for dear life. We got a break at the end and we were able to take advantage of it. The rest is history.

Laing: The storybook ending where they ended up playing Stoughton in the final and it just all came to be in a weird way that sports tend to happen sometimes. Brad would be the first guy, the whole team would be the first ones to admit they weren’t a top-five team in Canada at that time so to win the Trials was a surprise, obviously.

Hart: I think it was a funny thing. Once we played them in that first game we kind of put them aside. I really didn’t watch (their run), we were so focused on our own situation and it wasn’t until the playoffs rolled around. We were packing our bags and looking at the standings and seeing, wow Gushue went 8-1 and basically ran the table and had a bye into the final. After the dust had settled and we had been eliminated it was like, wow what a week those guys had. We had got a flight out of town and I watched the final from home. That was an incredible run they had at those Olympic Trials. … That was a really great story for Canadian curling that week.

Howard: That was unbelievable. I don’t know when that decision was made but to have Russ — at that time one of the most knowledgeable, one of the most decorated curlers ever and his experience and knowledge to bring him in there. Obviously throwing him in at second was great and to have him call the game I think Brad knows the game but Russ kind of would be that voice of wisdom sort of thing. Brad was pretty young back then and maybe he’d make the odd dumb call or stupid call and Russ would be there to say no, don’t do this. I’m sure Brad would agree with that. A couple of those shots here and there would make the difference and I think that’s what Russ brought to the team and Brad knew he could make the shots. By Russ calling the game takes a little bit of pressure off of Brad and at that age I think it was good for him and lo and behold he went on to win the Trials and win the gold medal. It was a pretty cool moment.

Kennedy: The way Brad and Russ were playing and the way Russ was calling the game, I don’t think any of the curlers were too surprised when Brad did win the final. I think the bigger surprise was his record in the round robin. … It was an interesting week but at the end of it I wasn’t too surprised that he won that final but I think everybody was surprised at how great he did the entire week.

Gushue: The fact that we got to go to the Olympics, that was the biggest thing. We came through, at that time, the toughest field assembled in curling. Those 10 teams were incredibly good and we beat them all other than Pat Ryan. It was a pretty proud moment and we were quite happy but getting to the Olympics was the biggest thing knowing we were going and we were going to be Olympians and have that experience was pretty cool.

Nichols: It was just so cool. I’m a huge fan of the Olympics and everything it does when it comes to bringing Canadians together and rallying behind one big team. I had always dreamed about what it would be like to go to the Olympics and have a chance to wear the maple leaf on your back on the biggest sporting stage in the world. We were just so overjoyed and excited for that opportunity and try to treat it like a once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s the coolest thing as an athlete to be able to wear that maple leaf on your back and represent your country.

Laing: It was a weird one. Looking back it still surprises me that they won but they deserved to win. They made all the shots and beat all the teams. At the end of the week they were the last team standing, they deserved to win and they won the Olympics, which was good to see as well, but it was a surprise that they had won week. Nobody can debate that.

Kennedy: It changed curling. Every Olympic Trials we’ve had has changed curling a little bit more but that was the one that really changed it for the young curlers including Brad because he saw an opportunity to do something amazing. We all realized the work and effort it would take from this point forward and that was kind of the point where you started to see young guys taking it to the next level. Brad Jacobs wasn’t at those Trials, obviously, but it was the next year at the Brier that we saw him for the first time so that’s when you started to see the young guys. That goes for Ben and I too. We got to see Brad win and then we started to see what it was going to take for us to win the next one. That’s when guys started to commit their lives to getting to the Olympics. That Trials had a big impact on a lot of our lives, for sure.

Kennedy concluded by saying who was the real winner in Halifax that week.

Kennedy: Brad might have won the Trials but I got the biggest prize: I met my wife in Halifax. We had a date night and were talking about how this is our 10-year anniversary coming up in a couple weeks of meeting each other. Brad might have won the gold but I got the biggest prize.

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Nothing was the same after the 2005 Trials:

– Team Gushue went on to take the top prize at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, becoming the first Canadian men’s curling team — as well as the first Newfoundlanders — to win Olympic gold medals.

– Ferbey’s dynasty run at the Brier came to an end while Martin dismantled his team following the conclusion of the 2005-06 season.

– Team Morris also broke up after the season, however, Morris, Kennedy, and Hebert stuck together and joined Martin — forming one of the most dominant teams of all time. Together the foursome won numerous Grand Slam titles, two Briers, one world championship and captured the Olympic gold medal on home ice at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

– Kevin Koe became one of the top skips on tour winning the 2010 Brier and world titles. Koe formed a new team in 2014 reuniting with Kennedy and Hebert and adding Laing.

– Just a couple months after the Trials, Glenn Howard won the Ontario Tankard for the first time as a skip, beginning an eight-year consecutive run representing the province at the Brier. Team Howard claimed six Grand Slam titles as well as the 2007 Brier and world championships. When Hart stepped back from competitive curling in 2011, Middaugh took his spot at third in the lineup and Team Howard continued their reign at the top winning six more Grand Slams and the 2012 Brier and world titles.

Special thanks to Brad Gushue, Mark Nichols, Glenn Howard, Marc Kennedy, Brent Laing and Richard Hart for sharing their thoughts on the Trials.