Koe advances to play McEwen in tonight’s Brier semifinal

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/03/2017 (3335 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — It’s Canada vs. Manitoba in the Brier 2017 semifinal game tonight.

Kevin Koe’s defending national men’s curling champions beat Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario 6-2 in the 3 vs. 4 Page playoff game today — a contest interrupted for almost an hour because of a power failure at Mile One Centre.

Koe takes on Mike McEwen’s team from Fort Rouge at 6 p.m. CT.

McEwen slipped to the semifinal after losing Friday night’s 1 vs. 2 game to Brad Gushe of Newfoundland-Labrador.

High winds, registered as strong as 140 km/h, knocked out power in many regions of St.John’s on Saturday afternoon.

Koe led 2-0 in the fourth end when the lights went out for a few seconds before back-up generators kicked in. Jacobs’ team from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., never really got on track in the do-or-die matchup, trailing 3-0 after the fifth end and then yielding a huge steal of three in the ninth to signal handshakes.

Gushue faces tonight’s semifinal survivor in the Brier final, set for Sunday at 5:30 p.m.

Northern Ontario won the 2013 Brier and the 2014 Olympic gold medal in Sochi, Russia. Jacobs finished third at last year’s Brier and has been relegated to the bronze-medal game here.

He said it’s very difficult to get motivated for the Sunday afternoon’s third-place game, making the case his squad has already finished out of a medal position.

“We come here to win the Tankard. I feel like we were fourth place leading into the playoffs and we finished in fourth place. I think the three best teams are left right now,” Jacobs said. “Whoever we end up playing is going to be coming off a loss, so they’re not going to want to play, either. So, it’s going to be difficult for both teams.

“But regardless we’ve got to do it. We’ve got to go out and play because there’ll be many people watching it at home, and there might be a few people in the stands here, so we gotta go out there and try to win it and entertain the fans.”

Despite limited lighting during the power outage, the party raged on inside the downtown arena.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Thursdays

Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter.

Sign up for Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

The crowd, a rowdy bunch even with their hometown heroes, Team Gushue, getting a day off, sang along to Garth Brooks and Journey while curlers teams took a breather in the dressing rooms.

When power was restored, the ice was scraped and re-pebbled and then play resumed.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell