– Newfoundland/Labrador vs Manitoba
Page Playoff 3 v 4: Saturday @ 3:30pm AT
– Alberta vs Ontario
The suspense began seeping out of the final-draw scenario like a leaky balloon on Thursday night in the Tim Hortons Brier at the John Labatt Centre.
When Newfoundlander Brad Gushue hammered four on the board in the fourth end of his match against Quebec’s Francois Gagne and Alberta’s Kevin Martin nailed Ontario’s Glenn Howard for a couple of early deuces and probably should have had a four-spot for openers, the weekend’s playoff alignment appeared to be settling in stone.
Indeed, Gushue and his team of Mark Nichols, Ryan Fry and Jamie Danbrook, will forge a 2005 Olympic trials rematch with Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton in tonight’s Page One-Two playoff match (8:30 AT) with the winner advancing directly to Sunday’s national championship final.
The contest will be a rematch of the 2005 Canadian Olympic curling trials final combatants as well as Thursday’s Draw-15 morning clash won 8-5 by the Newfoundland/Labrador bunch.
Martin and his Olympic gold-medallists of 2010 possessed only a slim chance of making it to the Page One-Two. Alberta needed a win over Howard and a loss from Gushue.
But Alberta’s last-draw 6-5 win over the Ontario team, which never seemed to be in doubt in spite of being taken to Martin’s open last-rock takeout shot in the 10th end, dragged Howard and Co., out of Page-One-Two contention as well, and into Saturday’s sudden-death Page Three-Four rematch at 3:30 p.m. AT.