THE CANADIAN PRESS
WINNIPEG — Just getting to the final of the Tim Hortons Brier was a battle, but Ontario’s Glenn Howard knows he’ll have another fight on his hands when he faces Alberta’s Kevin Martin in Sunday’s championship game.
Howard needed to draw the button in an extra end to beat Saskatchewan’s Pat Simmons 8-7 in Saturday’s semifinal. That means two of the best teams in the world will play for the Brier Tankard.
"We’ve got to play one of the best games we’ve ever played," said Howard, the defending Brier and world champion. "They’re going to come out guns blazing.
"I don’t ever expect them to have an average game. They did (Friday) night and I don’t see two in a row. We’re going to play our own game and the fact it’s Kevin is not going to change anything."
Martin said his team "played like dogs" for five ends when they just managed to beat Saskatchewan in a playoff Friday night. He expects Sunday’s game to be close.
"In the last couple of years our games have almost always come to the last rock in the tenth or an extra end," said the Edmonton skip, who has won two Briers in his career. "It will probably be the same tomorrow."
The Brier champion will go on to the world curling championships in Grand Forks, N.D., in April.
Howard and his rink of Richard Hart, Brent Laing and Craig Savill looked to have the semifinal under control against Saskatchewan until the eighth end. That’s when Simmons made a takeout to score three, tying the match 6-6.
Ontario scored a point in the ninth, leaving Saskatchewan one point down coming home with the hammer. Simmons forced the extra end with a takeout in the 10th, giving Ontario the last stone in the 11th.
Howard said a couple of shots by lead Craig Savill helped set up the final end and put him in position to throw the winning rock before a crowd of 8,201 at the MTS Centre.
"We played virtually a perfect game coming into the eighth," said Howard, who is looking at becoming just the eighth skip to win back-to-back Brier titles. "The way that ninth end went I was just so happy to get a point, I would have been happy to give him a point.
"I give credit to Craig Savill. Those two chip shots in the extra end were massive. That just made it an easy shot for me at the end. He won the game for us."
It was another disappointing ending for Simmons. His rink of Jeff Sharp, Gerry Adam and Steve Laycock suffered a heart-breaking 8-7 loss to Martin in Friday night’s playoff game when his last rock caught something on the ice.
"The first five ends we were chasing them a little bit and just were not quite as sharp as we were last night," said Simmons, who fought back tears. "We hung in there and battled.
"You have to give yourself a chance to win and we did."
The chiropractor from Moose Jaw knew he needed a miracle to pull off the upset in the extra end.
"We knew it was going to be tough," he said. "Chances are it was going to take some sort of terrible misfortune, like we had. I wouldn’t wish that upon them, that’s for sure."
This will be Howard’s third consecutive trip to the final, after losing the 2006 championship to Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard and defeating Olympic gold medallist Brad Gushue last year.
Still, he expects to be the underdog against Martin..
"I think it’s two of the best teams in the world," said Howard. "Hopefully we both go out and play to our abilities. I think it could be one of the best games ever, if everybody plays the way we should."
Martin and his rink of John Morris, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert lead the World Curling Tour money list with $111,000 in earnings. Howard is second at $95,795.
Alberta was 11-0 in the round-robin and beat Ontario 7-4.
This will also will be Martin’s first Brier final in 11 years.
"There will be butterflies," said the Olympic silver medallist. "There always is. I think any competitor, when they go into a big game, if you don’t feel butterflies I think you are in big trouble.
"Once the first rock is thrown, away you go."
Howard doubted Martin’s long absence from the Brier final will be a factor.
"I think if it was some different skips it would be a big difference," he said. "I think with Kevin Martin it doesn’t make a difference at all.
"The guy is a seasoned veteran. He’s seen it, been there, done it .This isn’t going to make a difference for him."
Howard hopes to become the first skip in Brier history to come from the No. 3 versus No. 4 playoff game to win the Canadian men’s curling title.
"That would be kind of cool," he said.
.Simmons was hoping to become the first Saskatchewan skip to win the Canadian men’s curling championship since Saskatoon’s Rick Folk in 1980.
The Brier uses the Page playoff system. The team that finishes first in the round-robin play the second-place team in one playoff game. The winner advances directly to the final. The loser goes to the semifinal and plays the winner of the third and fourth-place teams.
Since the system was introduced in 1995, three teams playing in the third versus fourth-place game have gone to the final but none have won.