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Kevin Koe in action at the 2016 Humpty’s Champions Cup in Sherwood Park, Alta. (Anil Mungal)

Brier takeaways: Koe capitalizes to steal spot in final

Just when it looked like Kevin Koe’s Tim Hortons Brier title defence was coming to an end, the reigning champ found a way to sneak back into the final.

Koe and his Team Canada crew clipped Manitoba’s Mike McEwen 7-6 in Saturday night’s semifinal in St. John’s, N.L., rallying late and stealing in an extra end. The Calgary native Koe is off to Sunday’s championship game against hometown hero Brad Gushue while McEwen plays Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs for bronze.

McEwen was in control for most of the match scoring three in the fourth end and two in the sixth while limiting Koe to just singles to lead 5-2.

“That game we were in trouble all the way,” Koe said in his post-game media scrum. “We played pretty good. I just had a couple bad misses, missed two in one end and a big three-ball. But we stayed in there and made some huge shots. We could have missed probably 10 shots that game and if we missed one of them we probably lose but made some huge shots coming down and we snuck her out.”

Manitoba held Team Canada to another lone point in seven and had a high-risk, high-reward chance in the eighth end to score a handful and really sink Koe’s chances. However, McEwen’s straight-back double attempt missed the target and conceded one. A single in nine restored the two-point advantage for McEwen.

Koe needed a deuce in the 10th to stay alive, and he came through with a double takeout to force the extra end. Still, the deck was stacked against Team Canada with Manitoba holding the hammer in OT.

McEwen’s first skip stone landed at the top of the four-foot circle and left Koe just enough of an opening to get in there and grab shot rock with his last.

“It was tough. We kind of though he might draw and if he makes a good one it’s game over,” Koe said. “But we also knew if he tried to draw and we got a little bit of a miss and that was really our only chance for the win or else he hits eight-foot all day. I made a good one on my last, the guys swept it awesome and we’re still in it.”

That forced McEwen to look at trying a tricky double raise to chip it out, but he was off the angle once again to surrender the steal.

“I guess we just tried to do too much,” McEwen said in his post-game media scrum. “We had a rock roll just to a horrendous place and that was our undoing.”

Tale of the tape

Let’s take a look at the two skips set to duke it out in the Brier final.

Gushue would love no better place than his hometown to finally win his first Tim Hortons Brier title in his 14th appearance at the Canadian men’s curling championship. The 36-year-old Gushue has finished runner-up twice settling for silver in 2007 and again last year to Koe, then representing Alberta. Gushue captured Olympic gold in 2006 and earned his seventh Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title at the Meridian Canadian Open this past January.

Koe looks to earn his third Tim Hortons Brier title in four years and become the first back-to-back champ since Kevin Martin in 2008-09 (his teammates Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert were part of Team Martin then). The 42-year-old Koe also captured Brier and world championships in 2010. Koe, a winner of four Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling titles, made it through the 3-4 game and the semifinal en route to the Brier title last year, so his crew will be hoping it’s a repeat of that scenario this time around, especially since they’d also like to defend their world title close to home next month in Edmonton.

Gushue edged Koe 7-6 during their round-robin match Thursday night and can opt to open with the hammer to start the final. Koe also knows it’s going to be a packed pro-Gushue house at the Mile One Centre, but believes his team is prepared.

“A couple years ago we were in B.C. and we played B.C. in the final in front of a full house,” Koe said. “Obviously it’ll be another level tomorrow, it’ll be way louder, but we’re a pretty experienced team and we had a good game with Brad Thursday night, so we’ll be ready.”

Brier blackout

brier blackout

The Page playoff 3-4 game was temporarily put on hold due to a power failure. (Anil Mungal)

Play was suspended for just over an hour during the Page playoff 3-4 match earlier as heavy gusts of winds — reportedly up to almost 160 km/h — knocked out the power shortly after the third end.

Kennedy and Northern Ontario third Ryan Fry amused themselves and the crowd by playing a game of shorts during the delay.

When the power returned, the ice was given a fresh scrape and both teams received additional warm-ups before play resumed. Koe topped Jacobs 6-2 and although the semifinal start time was pushed back half an hour, that still didn’t give Team Canada that much extra time to rest and recover before heading back out there to play Manitoba in another high-pressure affair.

Sequel scenario for bronze

It’s a rematch in the bronze medal game as well with McEwen and Jacobs squaring off for the third spot on the podium once more.

Jacobs defeated McEwen 7-6 in an extra end to earn the bronze a year ago although that time it was a disappointed Northern Ontario team who fell out of the semifinal and Manitoba had dropped the 3-4 game.

The key will be if Manitoba is able to regroup after such a crushing finish in the semifinal.