Photo Credit: Curling Canada

Brad Gushue has won his third Tim Hortons Brier over the last four years.

Gushue defeated Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher 7-3 in last night’s final in Kingston, Ontario.

He said this was a memorable Brier for him.

“To win in this field, which I believe is the strongest field I’ve certainly played in in the 17 Briers, and to come through, and to play the game we played (Sunday night), that’s special to play our best game in the final.”

Gushue said his team came into the event with a chip on their shoulders.

“We didn’t get any credit to be one of the favourites,” Gushue said. “There was a lot of talk about other teams, and we were kind of left to the side a little bit, and we felt we should have been in there, winning two of the last three.

“I think we were highly motivated this week, more so than we had been in the last two years.”

It was a third straight finals appearance for Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher, who is still looking to claim his first Brier title. He says the rest they had after winning the 1v2 page playoff game was not a factor in the loss.

“If anything, it should have been a good thing,” Bottcher said. “We did everything we needed to do to be ready, we just didn’t come out and play our best.”