Jacobs finishes fourth at Brier

It was the same two teams but a different result.

In a rematch of the bronze medal game from one year ago, Brad Jacobs and his rink from the Community First Curling Centre dropped a 7-5 decision in an extra end Sunday to Manitoba’s Mike McEwen at the 2017 Tim Hortons Brier on Sunday in St. John’s, Nfld.

An open hit for two in the extra end sealed the win for the McEwen rink.

“We wanted to put on a great show for the fans … you want to make shots and we did the best we could,” Jacobs told Curling.ca’s John Korobanik. “Both teams, we’re buddies off the ice and in a game like that you can even be buddies on the ice. Both teams were having a few laughs. It lets the fans see another side of us as competitors.”

“Our job as part of the competing teams is to put on a show and hopefully we did that,” added Northern Ontario third Ryan Fry. “You have to be precise and make a lot of shots. Your mistakes have to be very, very small to get to the top of this.”

The Northern Ontario rink, which includes second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden, beat McEwen 7-6 at the 2016 tournament in Ottawa, also in an extra end.

The Jacobs rink played in the game after dropping a 6-2 decision to Team Canada’s Kevin Koe in the 3-4 page playoff game on Saturday afternoon. Koe proceeded to beat McEwen 7-6 in an extra end to advance to the final and send McEwen to the bronze medal game.

“It was extremely difficult last night thinking about playing this game,” said McEwen. “But we were playing for points, for something in the future, for the experience and putting on a good show.”

In the final, Koe faced Newfoundland and Labrador’s Brad Gushue on Sunday night.

Playing in front of his hometown crowd at the Mile One Centre and with the game tied at six in the 10th end, a draw by Gushue gave him a 7-6 victory over the defending champion.

Gushue becomes the first Newfoundland and Labrador skip to win the Brier since Jack McDuff won the tournament in 1976.

It was redemption for Gushue, who lost to Koe in the 2016 final in Ottawa.

With the win, the Gushue rink will represent Canada at the Men’s World Curling Championship in Edmonton, Alta. beginning on Apr. 1.