Gushue advances to Brier final; Dunstone, Bottcher to meet in semifinal

Team Canada will get a chance to defend its title at the Tim Hortons Brier — and Brad Gushue will get a shot at a record.

Gushue’s rink stole one point in the 10th end to beat Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone 5-4 in the 1-2 Page playoff game Saturday at the Canadian men’s curling championship in London, Ont.

With the victory, Gushue advances directly to Sunday’s final. A win in that game would allow him to set a record for most Brier titles by a skip; he’s currently tied with Ernie Richardson, Randy Ferbey, Kevin Martin and Kevin Koe with four championships.

Dunstone drops into Sunday morning’s semifinal against Brendan Bottcher’s Wild Card #1 team. Bottcher advanced with a 6-3 victory over Ontario’s Mike McEwen in the 3-4 Page playoff game earlier Saturday.

The final is set for Sunday at 5 p.m. The winner will represent Canada at the world men’s curling championship, April 1-9 in Ottawa.

In the 1-2 game, the teams traded single points in the first two ends before Dunstone put up a deuce in the third with hammer. Gushue responded with two of his own in the fourth, and the teams again traded singles in the fifth and sixth.

The chess match continued, with Dunstone blanking each of the seventh, eighth and ninth ends to take last rock into the 10th. After Gushue put his last stone in the top of the four-foot behind cover, Dunstone tried to hit one of his own rocks at the back of the four-foot to score one, but his shooter rolled too far and he gave up the steal.

In the 3-4 game, Bottcher scored two in the sixth end to take a 4-2 lead and McEwen wasn’t able to overcome the deficit.