Northwest Territories ends on winning note at Tim Hortons Brier

REGINA — Veteran Jamie Koe ended his 12th trip to the Canadian Men’s Curling Championship on a winning note Friday morning at the Brandt Centre.

Jamie Koe directs his sweepers during his Territories team’s win over Quebec on Friday. (Photo, Curling Canada/Michael Burns)

The Northwest Territories skip and his Yellowknife team — vice-skip Chris Schille, second Brad Chorostkowski, lead Robert Borden — scored deuces in the first and eighth ends en route to a 6-3 win over Quebec’s Mike Fournier (Dollard-des-Ormeaux) to clinch ninth place in the overall standings.

The eight teams that didn’t qualify for the Championship Pool were in action on Friday morning for the Placement Round games, which determined the final overall standings. Teams are awarded Canadian Team Ranking System points and prize money based on their final standings, which also are used to determine rankings for the season-long Member Associations Cup, presented by TSN, competition.

Both the Territories and Quebec placed fifth in their respective preliminary pools.

In the battle for 11th and 12th place, New Brunswick’s James Grattan (Oromocto) recorded the first seven-ender since 2000 on his way to a 12-5 triumph over a shortstaffed B.C. team from Kelowna skipped by Sean Geall; both vice-skip Jeff Richard and lead David Harper returned home as their wives are both expecting babies.

Thomas Scoffin, left, and his dad Wade won their Tim Hortons Brier finale on Friday, (Photo, Curling Canada/Michael Burns)

Prince Edward Island’s Eddie MacKenzie (Charlottetown) opened with four in the first end and added three more in the third in a 12-3 win over Newfoundland/Labrador’s Greg Smith (St. John’s) to decide 13th and 14th place.

In the other game, Thomas Scoffin’s Yukon team from Whitehorse was a 7-6 winner over Nunavut’s Dave St. Louis (Iqaluit) to decide 15th and 16th.

Play in the Championship Pool wraps up Friday with draws at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (all times CT).

The top four teams (best overall won-lost records) proceed to the Page Playoffs on Saturday (1 vs 2 at 7 p.m., winner to final, loser to semifinal; 3 vs 4 at 2 p.m., winner to semifinal, loser eliminated).

The semifinal is Sunday at 11 a.m. while the gold-medal game is at 6 p.m.

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2018 Tim Hortons Brier are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/

TSN and RDS2 (streamed on ESPN3 in the United States) will provide complete coverage of the 2018 Tim Hortons Brier. Go to www.tsn.ca/2017-18-curling-broadcast-schedule-1.593081 for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2018 Tim Hortons Brier, go to www.curling.ca/2018brier/tickets/

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2018brier/?lang=fr