Glenn Howard (Wikimedia Commons)
Ontario’s Glenn Howard will now be going for his second World Curling Championship as a skip in five years.
On Sunday night in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Howard defeated Calgary’s Kevin Koe, representing Alberta, by a score of 7-6.
Howard might have defeated Koe by only one point, but in actuality the score was significantly more lopsided. The game was dominated by Ontario for the first eight ends. Alberta played better than Ontario in the latter stages of the game, but it was too little too late.
Team Ontario also won as a team. Wayne Middaugh set a Brier final record for the highest percentage by a third at 97%. The Ontario front end also dominated Alberta, especially at the second position where Brent Laing was twelve percentage points (91% to 79%) higher than Carter Rycroft.
Team Alberta also ran into some clock issues, as they only had 16 seconds remaining when Koe delivered his final stone. The major reason for this particular issue was because Howard’s Team Ontario squad made life miserable for Koe as he constantly had complex shots to deal with throughout the game. One end that comes to mind was the fourth, as third Pat Simmons and Koe each had to make difficult doubles to get out of messes created by the Alberta front end. Koe actually to make a second double to prevent Ontario to score two points, and missed in his attempt by an inch.
Howard’s rink will now represent Team Canada at the 2012 World Curling Championship in Basel, Switzerland starting March 31.
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