THE CANADIAN PRESS
WATERLOO, Ont. — Glenn Howard of Coldwater, Ont., will face Edmonton’s Kevin Koe in the Masters of Curling final after both rinks won their semifinal matchups Saturday.
Howard defeated Jeff Stoughton of Winnipeg 6-4, while Koe edged Brad Gushue of St. John’s 3-2 in the other semifinal.
Sunday’s championship game (CBC, 1 p.m.) will be a rematch of last year’s final, when Howard beat Koe 7-3 in Saskatoon.
With the first semifinal tied 2-2, Howard seized a key two points in the fourth end after tapping a Stoughton rock and rolling his final stone into the button.
After Stoughton scored a point in the fifth to trail by one, Howard responded with a draw to the button for two points in the sixth end to gain an insurmountable 6-3 advantage.
Howard previously won the Masters of Curling in 2006-07 and 2007-08. Since the inception of the Grand Slam of Curling series in 2001-02, no skip has won an event in three consecutive seasons.
Howard will also aim to win his fifth consecutive tournament to start the season.
"To win the first four, and here we are in the final of another one, it’s just surreal," said Howard. "You love to dream of it, but you just don’t ever expect it."
In the other semifinal, Gushue and Koe engaged in a defensive battle that featured a total of five blanked ends.
"I don’t know if I’ve been in a game that’s been that low scoring," said Koe. "Brad was throwing corners in every end and that’s just kind of the way the ends played out. We were happy to play that way and they seemed like they were happy too."
Trailing 1-0, Gushue grabbed his first lead in the sixth end after executing a straight hit for two points to move ahead by one.
After both teams blanked the seventh end, Koe’s team won the match on the game’s final shot as fourth Blake MacDonald made a dramatic double takeout and roll to earn two points.
In afternoon quarter-final action, Koe used a three-point sixth end to eliminate previously unbeaten Kevin Martin of Edmonton 6-5 while Howard rebounded from an early 2-0 deficit to edge Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers 6-4.
In other quarter-final results, Stoughton powered past Edmonton’s Randy Ferbey 5-2 to hand the four-time world champions their first loss of the tournament. Gushue advanced to the semifinal with a tight 4-3 win over Joel Jordison of Moose Jaw, Sask.
The Masters of Curling features a total purse of $100,000. The tournament’s winning team will receive a maximum of $25,000.