CALGARY, March 13, 2009 (CCA)– Alberta’s Kevin Martin will head into Sunday’s Tim Hortons Brier final in exactly the same position he was in heading into last year’s Brier final — holding the hammer, sporting an undefeated record and looking very much in control of his destiny.
Martin drew the four-foot with the last rock of the game to beat Ontario’s Glenn Howard 7-6 here Friday night in the Page Playoff 1 vs 2 game. The win advances Alberta straight through to Sunday’s Brier final. The victory also pushes Alberta’s record to 12-0 and extends their Brier record winning streak to 25 games, including their 13-0 championship run in Winnipeg last year.
It was the second time in as many nights that Alberta had beaten Ontario and Howard will now have to win Saturday night’s semi-final if he’s going have a chance to prove to Martin in the final that three times really is a charm for his Ontario squad.
Howard will play in the semi-final against the winner of Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton vs Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue in Saturday morning’s Page Playoff 3 vs 4 game. The loser of that game will be eliminated.
Manitoba advanced to the 3 vs 4 game with a 6-3 victory earlier Friday over Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard in a tiebreaker game that determined who claimed the fourth and final playoff spot.
Both Quebec and Manitoba finished the round-robin Thursday with identical 7-4 records. Newfoundland finished alone in third place with an 8-3 record and will hold hammer against Manitoba Saturday morning.
Friday night’s Howard-Martin matchup was another exceptionally well-played contest and it played out in a very similar fashion to Thursday night’s round-robin matchup between the two teams, with Howard challenging Martin throughout and looking like he had a chance to win several times.
But just as he did Thursday night, Martin rose to the occasion at game’s end Friday night and simply found a way. This time it was a masterfully played 10th end that forced Howard to take one with the hammer and send the game to an extra end — the first time Martin has had to play an extra frame this week.
With Howard lying two and one on the four-foot in the 11th end, Martin did not hesitate to call a draw with the last rock of the extra end. The Alberta skip was a little light out of his hand but Alberta sweepers Ben Hebert and Marc Kennedy simply dragged the rock to the full four-foot, where he out-counted Howard by barely an inch for the victory.