(CCA) A pair of undefeated favourites and age-old curling rivals are ready to go back at it tooth and nail again this morning at the Medicine Hat Arena.
John Morris of Team Martin (Photo: CCA/Michael Burns Photography)
Martin (5-and-0) and his gold-medal Olympians outscored another old rival, Randy Ferbey, 11-8 in the last round-robin match Friday night. Howard (5-0) stole an 8-6 victory over Brier champion Kevin Koe of Edmonton on an adjacent sheet.
“We had him in a lot of trouble in a lot of ends but Brad (last-rock shooter Gushue) did some amazing things to keep them in there,” said Martin, who notched four deuces and a three-spot on the scoreboard in nine ends.
“He got a three on us and it was 11-8 coming home. Any time it’s like that (19 points in nine ends), it’s a heckuva game.”
Howard, who lost to Koe in last year’s Brier final, trailed 6-4 playing the eighth end but scored a single there, another in the ninth and two in the final exchange to complete the larceny when Koe zipped a last-rock draw to the button threw the middle rings after Howard had buried on a corner of the four-foot with his last.
At the Brier in Halifax, Koe slapped his last stone of an extra end squarely on the button.
“Yeah, he missed this one by substantially more . . . “ said Howard.
“It was interesting. That ice got extremely, extremely fast by the end of the game. I couldn’t believe how light I was throwing it and we still didn’t need sweeping. Obviously, Kevin didn’t pick up on it.
“He was heavy on his first of the ninth, too. It’s surprising. He’s usually a lot more accurate than that. Our team wasn’t quite as sharp in this game but we hung in there.”
Koe would have clinched a berth in the Page One playoff with a win. The loss dropped him into a late-night tiebreaker against Jeff Stoughton of Winnipeg but Koe got the jump when a Stoughton rock picked in the third end leading to a Koe four-ender and a 6-2 lead. It ended 11-4 with a Koe theft of three in the sixth end.
Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen will face Koe, who shot 94 per cent in the tiebreaker, in the Page Two playoff with the winner heading into a semi-final against the Page One loser and the winner packing it in.
McEwen (4-and-1) booked his playoff berth with a morning 8-3 win over Ferbey (3-and-2) and a follow-up 7-3 decision against Serge Reid (1-and-4) of Jonquiere, Que.