Brier finalists have been determined

NEWS RELEASES

CANADIAN CURLING ASSOCIATION

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Ontario vs Newfoundland in Tim Hortons Brier Final HAMILTON -- Ontario’s Glenn Howard will play Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue in Sunday’s Brier final.

Howard advanced to the final with an 8-4 win over Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton in the Brier semi-final here Saturday afternoon.

It will be the second time this weekend that Newfoundland has faced Ontario. In their first meeting -- in Friday night’s page playoff game -- Gushue jumped out to an early lead and then hung on to a 7-6 victory.

That win advanced Newfoundland straight to the final, while Ontario was forced to play the semi-final against Stoughton.

In stark contrast to their effort against Newfoundland in which Ontario came out slow and were behind 4-0 before the game was a half-hour old, Howard stormed out of the gate against Manitoba.

Ontario scored deuces in the first and third ends, while Manitoba scored two in the second end on a very difficult tapback. But a pair of Ontario steals -- a single in the fourth end when Stoughton missed a very difficult angle raise and another in the fifth end when Stoughton was heavy with a draw -- proved to be decisive as Ontario headed into the fifth end break with a commanding 6-2 lead.

Both teams in Sunday’s final have interesting subplots. For Gushue, a Brier title would add to the Olympic gold medal he won in Turin in 2006 and represent the first Canadian men’s curling title for Newfoundland since 1976.

For Howard, a win would represent the first time he had skipped his own Canadian champion, after playing third for brother Russ Howard on two previous national champions.

The final will also be familiar territory for Howard. Howard also played in the 2006 Brier final and was upset by Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard.

Sunday’s final will be played at 6:30 p.m. ET and will be carried live on CBC-TV. ************************

Newfoundland One More Win Away HAMILTON -- Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue is one win away from adding a Brier championship to the Olympic gold medal he already owns.

Gushue jumped out to a 4-0 lead and then hung on for a 7-6 victory over Ontario’s Glenn Howard in the page playoff 1 vs 2 game here at the Tim Hortons Brier Friday night.

The loss means Howard must face Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton in Saturday’s Brier semi-final. Stoughton advanced to the semi-final earlier Friday with a 6-3 win over Alberta’s Kevin Martin. Martin was eliminated.

Gushue stole one in the first end and then three more in the second end to stake himself to an early lead over a Howard team who finished the round-robin in first place at 10-1 but came out flat Friday night.

“We didn’t play very well, that’s the bottom line. That’s one of the worst games we played,” Howard said afterward. “I have to play better, that’s the bottom line.

“The second end I don’t know we made a shot, that’s the unfortunate part. We were on the wrong side of the inch all the way down.”

Howard also went 10-1 in the round-robin at the 2006 Tim Hortons Brier. He won the 1 vs 2 game in Regina, but then lost the final to Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard.

Gushue opened this Brier with a 1-3 record, but has now won eight straight games, four of them in an extra end.

Gushue was asked what it felt like to be one game away from a Canadian championship.

“It feels the same way as two games away,” Gushue said. “It’s still a long way from winning it, you still have 10 ends against a great team that’s going to be either Glenn or Jeff. You know they’re going to make a ton of shots and we’re just going to have to make one more.”

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Manitoba Advances to Semi-final HAMILTON -- Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton advanced to the Tim Hortons Brier semi-final with a 6-3 win over Alberta’s Kevin Martin in the page playoff 3 vs 4 game here Friday afternoon.

Stoughton had an open hit for three with the last rock of the ninth end after Martin crashed on a guard one rock earlier while attempting to remove a Manitoba counter.

The loss eliminated Alberta.

“We were fortunate -- they had a couple missed shots here and there and we took advantage of them,” Stoughton said afterward. “I was thinking it was going to come down to the 10th end and we were going to be one up, maybe two up.”

Instead, Manitoba was three up coming home and simply ran Alberta out of rocks.

Martin suggested the episode proved just what a game of inches curling is.

“I just papered it,” Martin said. “I just ticked it. It was a close shot. Hit the post.”

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