Alberta books spot in Brier final

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This article was published 08/03/2019 (2072 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Alberta’s Kevin Koe will play for his fourth Canadian men’s curling championship title on Sunday at Westoba Place.

Koe and his Alberta team of B.J. Neufeld, Colton Flasch and Ben Hebert booked their spot in the final, which will start at 7 p.m., with a dominating 9-4 victory over Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs in the 1-vs.-2 Page playoff game on Saturday evening.

It’s the sixth final in seven Tim Hortons Brier appearances for Koe, who has three titles to his name and two silver medals. He’s looking forward to playing in another championship game.

“These chances don’t come too often,” Koe said. “For me and Ben we’d love to win another, but we’d love to win for our teammates. They’ve never done it. 

“We’ll be in tough no matter who we play. The game definitely won’t be like that. We’ll have to bring our best game, but we’re where we want to be.”

Alberta took control early in the game. Koe had a draw to the four-foot for two in the first end and then almost put the game out of reach in the second.

Facing three, Jacobs tried to come through a port to limit the damage to one, but he ticked a guard and gave up a steal of three instead to trail 5-0.

Despite getting a three, Koe wasn’t comfortable for most of the end.

“The second end was a bit of a funny end,” he said. “Neither team knew whether they were sitting good or in trouble. Me and B.J. talked going ‘Are we in trouble?’ 

“I made a good one with my first and Brad missed and he was in big trouble and just missed his last shot. We would have been up three regardless, which is a good spot. Just one of those big ends that was probably game over.”

That took the wind out of Northern Ontario’s sails and Alberta was on cruise control from there. 

Alberta forced Northern Ontario, which also features Ryan Fry, E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden, to a single in the third end and responded with a deuce in the fourth. Koe surrendered another single in the fifth before putting two more up on the scoreboard in the seventh to make it 9-2.

Jacobs closed out the game with a deuce in the eighth before conceding the game. He took full responsibility for the defeat.

“That loss right there, that’s on me. That’s on my shoulders,” said Jacobs, who curled 56 per cent in the game. “The boys played great in front of me. I told them I’ll be better tomorrow and that’s the plan.”

“I think I skipped us into some questionable situations there, I did for sure,” Jacobs added. “Then we didn’t get results. … I’m confident I’ll be better tomorrow for the team.

The Brier isn’t over for Northern Ontario as they will now take on Wild Card’s Brendan Bottcher in Sunday’s semifinal at 1 p.m. Wild Card defeated Team Canada’s Brad Gushue 7-2 in the 3-vs.-4 Page game earlier in the day. 

The winner of the semifinal will take on Alberta, which is undefeated this week, in Sunday evening’s final.

Neufeld, doesn’t care which team they take on for the title and the right to represent Canada at the world men’s curling championship later this month in Lethbridge, Alta.

“I don’t know if it matters who we play, but we’ve gained some confidence in the last few games,” he said. “We were maybe struggling a little in the middle of the week and have sharpened up a bit. For sure, we gained some confidence and it has us going into the final.”

An Alberta win would mean a lot to Neufeld. Not only would it be his first Brier title, but it also means he’s following in his father’s footsteps.

Chris Neufeld hoisted the Tankard in 1992 while playing for Vic Peters’ squad in Regina.

“To get a Brier title would mean the world to me,” he said. “I always wanted to follow in my dad’s footsteps since he won that Brier in Regina. It would be cool. 

“You have to keep your emotions in check. We still have one more game left. Whether we’re playing Brad or Brendan, it will be a tough game. We’ll just relax and enjoy tonight and focus up for tomorrow.”

EXTRA ENDS: The first-team all-stars were announced during the 1-vs.-2 Page game, with the honours falling on Jacobs (skip), Fry (third) and E.J. Harnden (second) of Northern Ontario and Saskatchewan’s Dallan Muyres for lead … Wild Card third Darren Moulding received the Ross Harstone Sportsmanship Award, which is voted on by the players. 

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