Gushue rink is rockin’ and rollin’ to Brier final

Home team beats Manitoba’s McEwen to earn spot in championship match

Newfoundland and Labrador’s Brad Gushue defeated Manitoba’s Mike McEwen 7-5 in the Page playoff 1-2 game Friday night to advance directly to the final of the Tim Hortons Brier.

The St. John’s skip scored a deuce in the fourth end and added a steal of one in the seventh before McEwen came back with a takeout for a pair in the eighth.

Gushue peeled a Manitoba stone to score two in the ninth end. He held McEwen to a single in the 10th to the delight of the sellout crowd at Mile One Centre.

Canada’s Kevin Koe will take on Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs in the Page playoff 3-4 game Saturday afternoon. The winner will play McEwen in the evening semifinal for a berth in the championship game Sunday night.

The playoff matchups weren’t finalized until the completion of the last round robin draw Friday morning. McEwen earned the top seed with a 5-2 win over Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard. McEwen and Gushue topped the standings with 9-2 records.

Gushue, who defeated Nova Scotia’s Jamie Murphy 6-3, was seeded second since he lost to McEwen in round robin play. Koe beat Mike Kennedy of New Brunswick 7-6 to earn the third seed. Both Koe and Jacobs finished round robin play at 8-3, but Jacobs was seeded fourth since he lost their head-tohead meeting.

The morning results knocked Menard and British Columbia’s John Morris ( both 7-4) out of the playoff picture and eliminated the possibility of tiebreaker games.

In the other morning game, Ontario’s Glenn Howard scored a single in the 10th end for a 6-5 win over Jamie Koe of the Northwest Territories. It was a record 17th Brier appearance for the 54-year- old Howard, who received a standing ovation from the near-sellout crowd of 5,716 after the game.

Howard, a four-time national and world champion, also holds the Brier record with 217 games played.

Saskatchewan’s Adam Casey finished round robin play at 5-6, followed by Murphy and Howard at 4-7 and Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher at 3-8.

Kennedy and Jamie Koe were tied at 1-10. The last-place finisher is no longer relegated to the qualification round as the 2018 Brier in Regina will be expanded to 16 teams.

Nunavut, Yukon and Prince Edward Island did not advance out of this year’s qualification round. They will be included in the main draw next year as the field will be split into two pools of eight teams.

The defending champion will continue to return as Team Canada, joining Northern Ontario and the 10 provincial and three territorial representatives. The 3-4 loser and semifinal loser will play for bronze on Sunday afternoon.