1982 BRIER — Part 4: The Archives — Third time is lucky for Hackner’s rink

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This article was published 12/08/2022 (1173 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This article originally appeared in the March 15, 1982 edition of the Brandon Sun

This time, The Iceman did Cometh.

After two frustrating years of being second best, Al (Iceman) Hackner and his Northern Ontario rink of third Rick Lang, second Bob Nicol and lead Bruce Kennedy finally reached the top of the hill at the Keystone Centre on Sunday afternoon.

The Thunder Bay foursome scored a convincing 7-3 victory over British Columbia’s Brent Giles before a crowd of 5,800 fans in the final game of the 1982 Canadian men’s curling championship.

Hackner, beaten in the Brier final the previous two years by Saskatoon’s Rick Folk and Winnipeg’s Kerry Burtnyk, will represent Canada in the Silver Broom championship. March 29-Apr. 4, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

“It’s great to have finally won the Brier,” Hackner said. “We tried to put the last two years behind us and just concentrated on winning this game.”

Hackner had a relatively simple time winning the final over Giles’ Vancouver rink which included third Greg Monkman, second Al Roemer and lead Brad Giles.

Hackner struck for two points and a 3-1 lead when Giles gassed two in-turn takeouts on the third end. After the B.C. rink got one point back on the fourth end. Northern Ontario took complete command by scoring single points on the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth ends.

By the time B.C. got one point on the ninth, the issue had already been decided. Giles ran out of rocks in the 10th end.

“I think the turning point was the end (the sixth) when we stole a point to go ahead by three,” said Hackner. “That made them take chances and play tough shots. Right there, they quit making the good shots they had made all week.”

Hackner set up that steal by making a delicate draw to the eight-foot through a narrow port. Giles, attempting a tap back with his final shot to count two, only promoted Hackner’s stone.

Giles felt something slipping long before that miss.

“When I missed those two shots on the third end and gave up two, we lost control of the game,” said Giles, whose rink had secured a bye into the final by finishing first in the round-robin with a 9-2 record.

While Hackner was beating Manitoba’s Mel Logan 8-5 in Saturday afternoon’s semi-final game, Giles and his rink had the day off.

“The layoff didn’t affect us,” said Giles. “They curled a superb game and we didn’t play well enough. We didn’t get the rubs we needed.

“But still, we’re pretty happy to have done what we’ve done. We’ve accomplished a lot.”

Hackner, a 27-year-old railway switchman, thought his team got back on track in its semi-final victory over Manitoba.

The Northern Ontarians lost their last three games of the round-robin series and finished second with an 8-3 record. Quite plainly, they were mired in a slump.

But, led by Hackner’s 88 per cent shooting, they gunned their way out of it.