He will be retiring from the men's team game at the end of the season. Northern Ontario lead Colin Hodgson threw a perfect game in his final Brier appearance. That set up Bottcher for a three-ender that turned the game in his favour. The 3-4 loser will be eliminated.Įarlier, Horgan held Bottcher to a single in the first and took the lead with a deuce in the second end.īut Wild Card 1 second Brett Gallant made a runback triple-takeout in the third and a Horgan stone flashed later in the end.

The -2 winner goes directly to the final on Sunday night while the loser falls into the semifinal against the -4 winner. They'll square off in the -2 game on Saturday night while McEwen and Bottcher will meet in the -4 matchup earlier in the day. Obviously a big moment.'ĭunstone and Gushue earned byes to the seeding round after finishing first in their respective nine-team pools in round-robin play. 'We haven't really had a moment where we had a shot to win a game like that. 'Oh man, this team has been waiting for that moment all year,' Dunstone said. Unbeaten Manitoba skip Matt Dunstone beat Bottcher 5-3 in the other matchup.ĭunstone made a game-winner by throwing his stone through a small port for the hit to score three. McEwen couldn't duplicate the effort in the evening, dropping a 9-3 decision to defending champion Brad Gushue in a seeding game. 'We let them hang around and they made us pay.' A ninth-end miss led to a force and McEwen took advantage with hammer coming home. Koe, who shot 79 per cent, scored pairs in the fifth and seventh ends. 'There's always great playoff games but that ranks up there as one of the most entertaining that I've ever been a part of.' 'Anything Kevin did, we matched and then back and forth, back and forth, the entire game,' McEwen said. Ontario set up the end nicely and McEwen made the Alberta stones spill to the delight of the 5,152 in attendance.

The Ontario-Alberta game lasted about five minutes longer, allowing the partisan crowd to fully concentrate on the late efforts of McEwen and teammates Ryan Fry, Brent Laing and Joe Hart. 'To win one of these you've got to play really well on the weekend. 'I think we still have another gear,' Bottcher said. His teammates all shot at least 90 per cent and held a plucky Northern Ontario side to a few singles after an early deuce. Wild Card 1's Brendan Bottcher also advanced with an 8-5 win over Northern Ontario's Tanner Horgan.īottcher controlled the game after scoring three in the third end. The victory moved the home side into the four-team Page playoffs on the weekend at Budweiser Gardens. 'I haven't been in a game quite like that in some time.' 'That was one for the ages,' McEwen said. The Ontario skip made a big-weight hit to score a pair in the 10th end for a thrilling 9-8 victory over Alberta's Kevin Koe in a crossover elimination game Friday afternoon at the Tim Hortons Brier. Mike McEwen's first lead of the game came at the perfect time.

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