LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — Brad Gushue's Wild Card One team and Alberta's Kevin Koe posted victories Thursday to lock up first place in their respective pools at the Tim Hortons Brier.
Gushue improved to 7-0 in Pool B with a 6-5 victory over Wild Card Three's Jason Gunnlaugson in the morning draw at the Enmax Centre. Koe beat Prince Edward Island's Tyler Smith 8-3 in the afternoon to finish in top spot in Pool A at 7-1.
"We're glad we're there but now the real work begins," said Alberta lead Ben Hebert.
Canada's Brendan Bottcher (7-1) finished second in Pool A after a 6-3 victory over Nathan Young of Newfoundland and Labrador. Saskatchewan's Colton Flasch (6-2) needed an extra end for a 9-8 win over Wild Card Two's Matt Dunstone (6-2) to set up a Friday morning tiebreaker between the provincial rivals.
The top three teams in each pool advance to the playoffs.
Earlier in Pool B, Manitoba's Mike McEwen defeated Jamie Koe of the Northwest Territories 7-3 to move into a second-place tie with idle Northern Ontario skip Brad Jacobs at 5-2.
Manitoba and Northern Ontario can lock up playoff berths with victories in the round-robin finale Thursday night. McEwen was scheduled to play Quebec's Michael Fournier (3-4) and Jacobs was to meet Nova Scotia's Paul Flemming (3-4).
Gunnlaugson (5-3) and British Columbia's Brent Pierce (4-3), a 9-2 winner over Nunavut's Peter Mackey, were still in the mix for a potential tiebreaker.
Gunnlaugson had a 4-3 edge on Gushue after eight ends but the St. John's skip scored two in the ninth for the lead. A measure confirmed Gunnlaugson's single in the 10th but Gushue used hammer to his advantage in the extra end.
"Hopefully we can, in the playoffs, get all four guys going at the same time," Gushue said. "I like how everybody is throwing it."
In other games, Quebec thumped Nova Scotia 14-6 and Ontario's Glenn Howard whipped Yukon's Thomas Scoffin 10-2.
It's an 18-team field at the national playdowns this year - two more than usual - and there's an expanded playoff structure. The second- and third-ranked teams in each pool cross over to play qualifier games Friday afternoon.
The winners advance to play the pool leaders on Friday night. The winners of those games advance to the Page playoff 1-2 game Saturday and the losers meet in the 3-4 game.
The 1-2 Page winner goes directly to Sunday night's final. The 1-2 loser plays the 3-4 winner in the semifinal earlier that day.
The Brier winner will represent Canada at the April 2-10 world men's curling championship in Las Vegas.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2022.
Follow @GregoryStrongCP on Twitter.
Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press
