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Brad Gushue is right where he wants to be playing for a Canadian men’s curling championship in his own backyard.

Gushue and his Newfoundland and Labrador team upended Manitoba’s Mike McEwen 7-5 in Friday night’s Page 1-2 playoff at the Tim Hortons Brier in St. John’s to secure a spot in the final.

The 2006 Olympic gold medallist Gushue, making his 14th Brier appearance, has yet to win the national title but can make the boyhood dream come true Sunday night in front of family, friends and fans at the sold out Mile One Centre.

It was a team effort to reach the championship game as the whole N.L. quartet of Gushue, third Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker was practically perfect with all four shooting in the 90s and the skip firing at a 95 percent clip.

“That was our best game all week,” Gushue said in his post-game media scrum. “I thought we controlled it right from the get-go. We didn’t make any mistakes, which we’ve been making a bunch all week, and it was a good game. Lots of good shots.”

Both squads finished round-robin play at the top of the table with identical 9-2 records, however, McEwen scored an 8-4 win over Gushue during Draw 3, which gave Manitoba the hammer to start.

McEwen was unable to capitalize with last rock advantage and was forced to draw for a single in the opening end. Gushue replied with his first of three deuces in the game during the second stanza even though he believed his draw was light. Nichols stepped up to the plate to help Gallant sweep and drag it into the eight-foot circle to ensure they scored the pair.

Newfoundland and Labrador never trailed from that point onward as Manitoba was limited to another single in three that tied it. Gushue counted another couple in four and stole one in seven to pull ahead 5-2.

McEwen finally found the offence picking up two in the eighth to narrow the gap, but Gushue matched with a pair in nine to retake the three-point advantage. That didn’t bring out the handshakes, but down by a trio coming home had McEwen on the ropes and nowhere to hide when Gushue delivered his last takeout to secure the victory.

“We stayed as united as we ever have this past two months going that we’ve been able to really come together as a team so that didn’t change,” McEwen said. “Threw a lot of quality shots out there but margins of error were so small with how well they were playing. We were going to have to be very close to perfect to beat them tonight.”

Statistically speaking

If you’re Team Gushue you might want to just go ahead and jump to the next takeaway.

(Not-so) fun fact: the victor of the 1-2 game hasn’t gone on to win the Brier since Ontario’s Glenn Howard in 2012.

Gushue is part of that stat defeating Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs in the 1-2 game last year and losing to Kevin Koe in the final. Even at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts this season, Ontario’s Rachel Homan dropped the 1-2 match to Manitoba’s Michelle Englot before coming back to avenge the loss in the championship game.

While having Saturday off is nice — especially after playing seven days straight — and starting the final with the hammer is key, keeping the grind going and becoming more familiar with the rocks and the ice when you’re the lone sheet in the rink can also serve as an advantage to the semifinal winner.

Gushue will be hoping he doesn’t extend the 1-2 winner’s drought and believes his team is prepared as ever for this moment with the experience from last year to build upon.

“We just hope a guy doesn’t curl as well as Kevin Koe did against us last year is number one,” Gushue said with a laugh. “But I think it’s going to help. I know the feelings that we had that Friday night and the Saturday and I think we’re going to be a little bit more relaxed, I really do. Even though we’re playing at home we’re going to enjoy the moment and the experience and we’re ready. I really believe we’re ready and whether we win or not I’m not sure but it won’t be because we’re not ready.”

McEwen gets second shot at final

Thanks to the Page playoff format McEwen gets another lifeline and looks to make a detour through Saturday night’s semifinal against the winner of the 3-4 game for a chance at a rubber match versus Gushue for the championship.

Odds should be in McEwen’s favour as he opens the semifinal with the hammer and will play an opponent — whether it’s Koe or Jacobs — who probably isn’t getting a ton of time to recover from the 3-4 game earlier that afternoon.

You also have to think the Koe-Jacobs match is going to be quite the barnburner and come down to the final rock of the game or even require an extra end, thus adding even more fatigue. Still, going back to the previous takeaway, both Jacobs and Koe have come through the 3-4 game en route to the title recently, so it’s best not to declare anyone the favourite.

Tiebreakers denied

Given how similar the Brier field is to last year’s lineup, should we be surprised the final four teams are identical?

Deja vu or not, entering Friday morning, only Gushue had secured a spot in the Page playoffs with a berth in the 1-2 game regardless of the outcome in the last round-robin draw.

Jacobs (8-3) was idle and guaranteed something while McEwen, who led the table all week, could have slipped into a tiebreaker depending on how things shaped up.

Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard needed a win over McEwen, but gave up three consecutive steals late to fall 5-2. Menard and B.C.’s John Morris (both 7-4) were still in it, but needed Koe to lose to New Brunswick’s Mike Kennedy and drop into a three-way tie scenario for the fourth spot.

It was a nail-biter for Koe with Kennedy opening with hammer and scoring a deuce in the first then added another couple in the sixth to lead 5-3. Koe came back with a single in seven and stole two in eight to finally pull ahead. Kennedy had nowhere to go with his last in the 10th and Koe (8-3) knocked it out to secure his playoff spot with the 7-6 win and eliminate Quebec and B.C.

Howard tips broom to crowd

Four-time Brier champ Howard topped Jamie Koe of the Northwest Territories 6-5 Friday morning to end his record 17th run representing Ontario at the national championship. Howard (4-7) added 11 games this year to his all-time Brier record for most games played bringing it up to 218 and received quite the ovation as he saluted the Mile One Centre crowd during his exit. You never know if it’ll be the last time we’ll see the 54-year-old Howard at the Brier, but never say never given that he made it through this time.