The 2018 Tim Hortons Brier field was narrowed from four teams down to three Saturday at the Brandt Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan.
Canada advanced to Sunday's gold-medal match by virtue of its win over Ontario, while Alberta eliminated Northern Ontario from the competition in the earlier contest.
While Canada knows that it will play for gold Sunday night, its opponent will be determined in a semifinal Sunday afternoon between Alberta and Ontario.
Here is a closer look at how Saturday's matches played out, along with a rundown of Sunday's schedule when the winner of the 2018 Tim Hortons Brier will be determined.
March 10 Results
Alberta 6, Northern Ontario 5
Canada 6, Ontario 2
March 11 Schedule
Ontario vs. Alberta, 1 p.m. ET
Canada vs. winner of Ontario/Alberta, 8 p.m. ET
Saturday Recap
In Saturday's first match between the No. 3 and No. 4 seeded teams, Alberta managed to outlast Northern Ontario 6-5 in 11 ends.
Alberta led 3-2 through six ends, but Northern Ontario put itself in prime position to pull off the come-from-behind victory with two points in the seventh end and one in the eighth.
Northern Ontario needed only to hold Alberta to less than two points in the 10th end in order to advance to Sunday's semifinal, but the Albertan team of Karrick Martin, Brad Thiessen, Darren Moulding and Brendan Bottcher came through with two clutch points to force an 11th end.
Since Alberta had the hammer in the all-important 11th end, it had a major advantage, and it made the most of it by scoring the decisive point to win 6-5.
Alberta still has its work cut out if it is going to win the Tim Hortons Brier for the second time in three years and 28th time overall, but Saturday's win ensured that it will at least have a chance to play its way into the gold-medal match.
After Alberta's big win, top-seeded Canada took on No. 2 Ontario in a huge tilt to determine one of the two representatives in the gold-medal match.
While both teams knew going into the match that they would remain alive in the tournament regardless of the result, winning created a much easier path to prevailing in the tournament.
Canada jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second end, and it held a 5-1 advantage after six ends.
Ontario picked up a point in the eighth end, but after Canada scored a point in the ninth end to make it 6-2, Ontario conceded because of the incredibly low chances to scoring four or more points in the 10th.
Canada received remarkable performances from Brad Gushue and Mark Nichols, who hit 100 percent and 96 percent of their shots respectively, while Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker also turned in strong showings.
After finishing second at the Tim Hortons Brier last year, Team Canada will have a chance to win the tournament Sunday for the first time since 2015, while Ontario is still in the hunt for its first Tim Hortons Brier title since 2012.
from Bleacher Report - Front Page http://ift.tt/2FqMcMx
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