Koe back in the Brier

Kevin Koe returns to the Canadian men’s curling championship attempting to win it a fourth time with a revamped lineup.

Koe downed Ted Appelman 9-5 in the Alberta men’s final Sunday to gain a berth in the Tim Hortons Brier coming up March 1-10 in Brandon, Man.

“These are the games you want to play in,” Koe said in Edmonton. “You’re playing good teams for the right to represent Alberta at the Brier and fortunately for us, we beat a great team today.”

The last vacancies in the Brier field filled Sunday with the addition of Koe, Manitoba’s Reid Carruthers, Saskatchewan’s Kirk Muyres, Jamie Koe of Northwest Territories and Yukon’s Jon Solberg.

Koe’s victory over Appelman also opened the door a crack for Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher to gain a Brier berth.

Bottcher fell to Koe in Sunday’s semifinal, but because of his national ranking faces Toronto’s John Epping in a win-and-get-in game March 1 to determine the 16th team in Brandon.

Koe would have been in that position had he lost to Appelman.

Former Canadian and 2014 Olympic champion Brad Jacobs (Northern Ontario), Scott MacDonald (Ontario), Terry Odishaw (New Brunswick), Stuart Thompson (Nova Scotia), Dave St. Louis (Nunavut), John Likely (P.E.I.), Martin Crete (Quebec), Jim Cotter (B.C.) and Andrew Symonds (Newfoundland and Labrador) round out the group in Brandon.

The winner dons the Maple Leaf for the men’s world championship March 30 to April 7 in Lethbridge and also get a bye to next year’s Brier in Kingston, Ont.