Playoff picture far from settled at the Brier

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — The pre-tournament favourites are playing like contenders this week at the Tim Hortons Brier.

The round robin has essentially gone as expected at Mile One Centre with top skips like Brad Gushue, Kevin Koe, Mike McEwen and Brad Jacobs battling for position near the top of the leaderboard.

Jean-Michel Menard and John Morris were also in the playoff hunt heading into the final draw this morning.

“I think that’s the way Canadian men’s curling is,” McEwen said. “You’ve got about a half dozen teams and if you run this over and over and over again, you might get six different winners depending on the week.”

No playoff matchups had been set after Thursday night’s games.

Gushue won twice on the day to give Newfoundland and Labrador (8-2) a spot in the Page playoff 1-2 game. Several scenarios are still in play and seedings are still up in the air for all four playoff spots.

If tiebreakers are needed, they will be played this afternoon.

Gushue thrilled near-capacity crowds with clutch draws for a pair of victories. He beat Ontario’s Glenn Howard 8-7 in an extra end in the afternoon before topping Koe 7-6 in similar fashion in the evening.

“That’s the loudest roar I think I’ve ever heard,” Gushue said after beating the defending champion.

Gushue will close out play this morning against Nova Scotia’s Jamie Murphy.

McEwen split his games to leave Manitoba at 8-2 after 16 draws. McEwen beat Howard 8-3 in the evening after dropping a 6-3 decision to Koe in the afternoon.

“It’s a very scoreboard management type of game against those guys because everybody is so good,” said Canada third Marc Kennedy. “Our skip played great again. Like our coach says, we’re learning how to win without playing our best.”

Manitoba shot 92 per cent overall while Canada was at 88 per cent.