The Brier, the Canadian men’s curling championship, is down to the final four as the seemingly endless playoff format continues in London, Ont.

But the drama is real.

Brad Gushue’s Team Canada and Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone are set for Saturday’s Page 1 vs 2 playoff, while Ontario’s Mike McEwen and Wild Card’s Brendan Bottcher will lock horns in the 3 vs 4 game.

Only one of these four will be eliminated on Saturday, as the semifinal and final await on championship Sunday.

First came the “Page Qualifiers” on Friday afternoon, where Alberta and Northern Ontario were eliminated.

Tanner Horgan’s Sudbury outfit lost 8-5 to Bottcher, largely on the strength of an strong Bottcher turnaround in the third end. The Edmonton crew trailed and looked somewhat lost until second Brett Gallant made a huge runback triple. After a Horgan miscue, Bottcher threaded a needle on his final stone and the Wild Card gang had the lead, which they never relinquished.

Meanwhile, Alberta’s Kevin Koe went down to the wire against McEwen and it was the makeshift Ontario squad that came away 9-8 winners.

McEwen needed an angle double takeout with the hammer in the 10th end to leave two winning stones in the rings. It was Ontario’s only lead of the afternoon.

McEwen whooped after his final stone and for good reason—he’d just won his fifth game in a row and his second straight after an opponent’s last-stone miscue, and he evicted a 7-2 team from the Brier playoff picture.

“There’s always great playoff games but that ranks right up there,” said McEwen. “It’s one of the most entertaining I’ve ever been part of.”

Fans, teammates and opponents all saluted Northern Ontario lead Colin Hodgson, who fired a perfect 100 per cent game in what could be his final Brier appearance. Hodgson, who was in the news despite missing the Brier a year ago, has announced his intention to retire from traditional four-player team curling after this season.

Later, the 42-year-old Gushue captained a solid 9-3 win over Ontario in the Page playoffs seeding round. His next opponent will be Manitoba following Dunstone’s spectacular win over Bottcher, in which the Manitoba skip made a beauty final stone of the 10th end to score three and pull out a 5-3 victory.

“That last end was fun,” said Dunstone. “It’s always great when it comes down to last stone.”

Dunstone’s ’Tobans—B.J. Neufeld, Colton Lott and Ryan Harnden—are now 9-0 for the week at Budweiser Gardens.

Gushue fell behind McEwen early, giving up a steal of two in the second end, but came back strong with three points in the third.

“Once we got that three you could feel the momentum shift,” Gushue said. “We played great.”

Canada lost to Ontario in their pool round robin for their only loss, but the rematch was completely different.

“Mike’s team played better in that first game,” said Gushue. “Obviously they didn’t make as many shots today.”

The game swung sharply in Team Canada’s direction in the fourth end when McEwen, down 3-2, missed both his shots, including a backbreaker when he was short with his draw to the button area facing three.

Things went from bad to worse in the fifth for Ontario, representing the Royal Canadian Club in Toronto, when McEwen flashed an open hit with his first rock and was unable to clean up a huge mess of Canada stones with the hammer, giving up two more.

McEwen said his team will have to regroup.

“I’m pretty sure I never heard of anyone win the Brier on Friday,” he said. “We’re playing (Saturday). I think we can shake this off. Short-term memory.”