Playoff matchups set at Brier

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This article was published 07/03/2019 (2073 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The final four is set at the Tim Hortons Brier and tonight’s draw will be a preview of the Page playoff games.

Wild Card’s Brendan Bottcher defeated Ontario’s Scott McDonald 6-4 at Westoba Place on Friday afternooon to wrap up a playoff spot for that team as well as Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs and Team Canada’s Brad Gushue. Alberta secured its berth on Thursday.

Then Brad Jacobs and Northern Ontario edged Team Canada’s Brad Gushue 7-6 in an extra end to secure their place in Saturday’s 1-vs.-2 Page playoff game.

The 3-vs.-4 game will feature Canada (8-2) and Wild Card (8-2). The winner of tonight’s contest between the two teams, a preview of the Page game, will have the hammer and choice of colour in tomorrow’s elimination contest.

If Alberta’s Kevin Koe (10-0) win’s tonight’s game over Jacobs (9-1), he will have choice of hammer and colour of rock through the entire playoff round. If Jacobs wins, he’ll have choice of hammer or colour for tomorrow’s 1-vs.-2 Page game.

Jacobs, whose draw in the extra end barely hung onto the back of the four-foot for the win, was focused on getting to the 1-vs.-2 game, knowing he’ll have a second chance if he loses that game.

“It’s huge,” he said. “It gives us two chances at making the final. Like I said earlier, that’s mission accomplished. You want to obviously make it into the championship pool, make it into the top four, but ultimately you want to get into that 1-2 game and if you can, get hammer. 

“Destiny is in our own hands. We control our own destiny at this point and couldn’t ask for anything more.”

For Koe, who blew out Saskatchewan’s Kirk Muyres 9-3 on Thursday afternoon, this is the second time he has qualified for the 1-vs.-2 game in his career. He lost that game in 2014 to British Colmbia’s John Morris, but came back through the semifinal and beat Morris in the final.

“That’s something new for me,” Koe said of playing in the 1-vs.-2 Page game. “I think I’ve been in one before. That’s good. Obviously you want to be there. We want to play well tonight. I don’t know all the different things that can happen, but if we win then we can get hammer. That will be something to still play for for sure.”

Meanwhile, Bottcher cracked an early three in his win over McDonald (6-4) and never let his opponent to close the gap to less than two for the rest of the contest.

He feels his team is playing well and hopes to continue on its roll against Gushue.

“For sure. You want to go into the playoffs knowing you’re playing your best,” Bottcher said. “You want to go in feeling that you’re on a roll and beating those guys going into the playoffs would be big for us.”

In the other game, Mike McEwen’s Manitoba team improved to 5-5 with a 9-7 triumph over British Columbia, which dropped to 4-6 with Saskatchewan.

Manitoba will wrap up its run at the Canadian men’s curling championship tonight when it takes on Ontario at 7 o’clock.

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