They say stealing is wrong.
But ask Jamie Koe how it feels to steal. He’ll tell you it’s a great feeling, especially when it gets you into the playoffs at the Montana’s Brier.
Koe and his rink of Glen Kennedy, Cole Parsons, Shad Mcleod and Steve Robertson will be part of the final six at the Canadian men’s curling championship in Regina after stealing a 9-8 decision over Prince Edward Island in the final pool game for both teams on Thursday. It’s the first time the NWT has made it into the playoffs at the Brier since 2012 in Saskatoon. Koe skipped the NWT that year as well.
The math going in was simple: Koe had to win in order to keep his hopes alive. He also needed help from Brad Gushue and Team Canada to beat Aaron Sluchinski of Alberta to have a chance and that happened as Gushue beat Sluchinski on Thursday, 10-4.
Koe opened the scoring by stealing a single in the first end, which P.E.I. answered in the second to tie the game at 1-1. From there, both teams traded deuces in ends three through six, making the score 5-5. Koe scored one in the seventh to go back out in front, but P.E.I. put up three in eighth to take an 8-6 lead.
Following a blank in the ninth end, Koe needed to score at least two to keep the game alive and send it into bonus curling and he did just that and went on to steal the one point he needed to get in.
Both the NWT and P.E.I. finished with identical records of five wins and three losses, but the first tiebreaker is head-to-head and since the NWT beat P.E.I., they get the nod.
Who they’ll play first is still a mystery as the other pool still had one more set of games to go on Thursday evening, but what we do know is that their first playoff matchup will be tomorrow night, Friday, at 6 p.m.