The 1965
Macdonald Brier, the
Canadian men's national
curling championship, was held from March 1 to 5, 1965 at
Saskatoon Arena in
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. After the
Brier the year before drew the smallest crowd since
1952, the 1965 Brier broke the attendance record at the time as a total of 52,319 fans attended the Brier.[1] This attendance record would not be surpassed until
1970.
Team Manitoba, who was
skipped by
Terry Braunstein captured the Brier Tankard by finishing round robin play with a 9–1 record. This was Manitoba's first Brier championship since
1956 and their sixteenth Brier championship overall. Braunstein's rink would go on to represent
Canada in the
1965 Scotch Cup in which they became the first Canadian team to not win gold as they were upset by the
United States in the gold medal game.
Draw 9 between
Alberta and
Quebec saw the largest come from behind victory in Brier history. Alberta trailed 9-0 after the fifth end but Alberta outscored Quebec 16-3 in the last seven ends to win the game 16-12.[2]
Draw 9 also saw two separate games go into a second extra end (14 ends) as
Nova Scotia beat
Newfoundland 11-9 and
Ontario defeating
New Brunswick 11-10. This was only the second and third time in Brier history that a second extra end would occur. The only other time this occurred was in
1955, which also featured Ontario and New Brunswick.
Event Summary
Heading into the Thursday evening draw,
Manitoba lead the competition with an unbeaten record of 7-0 while
Saskatchewan, heading into their bye was 7-1.
Northern Ontario and
Quebec were both 5-2 and
Alberta was 5-3. In the Thursday evening draw, Northern Ontario handed Manitoba their first loss of the competition with a 12-6 victory while Quebec blew a 9-0 lead after five ends and lost to Alberta 16-12. Heading into the final day, both Manitoba and Saskatchewan were tied with 7-1 records with Northern Ontario one game behind with a 6-2 record with Alberta and Quebec still having an outside shot with 6-3 and 5-3 records respectively.
The Friday morning draw saw a major upset as
Saskatchewan lost to a two-win
Nova Scotia team 7-6 in which Saskatchewan lead 6-4 with two ends remaining.
Northern Ontario stayed alive as they beat
Quebec 8-6 while
Manitoba took complete advantage of Nova Scotia's upset win and cruised to a 13-7 victory over
Ontario to retake the Brier lead and be in the drivers seat heading into the final draw.
Heading into the final draw, both
Northern Ontario and
Saskatchewan would need to win and have
Manitoba lose to force a tiebreaker against Manitoba. Northern Ontario would lead
Alberta 8-5 heading into the tenth end, but
Alberta would stage another come from behind win as they tied the game with three in the tenth. After the eleventh end was blanked, Alberta would seal Northern Ontario's fate with a steal of one in the final end for a 9-8 win. Saskatchewan would keep their hopes alive as they cruised past
Prince Edward Island 11-8. However, Manitoba would clinch the Brier Tankard with a 10-7 win over
British Columbia. BC kept it close until the eighth end when Manitoba would score five to take the lead for good.