Manitoba skip Jeff Stoughton reacts to a shot during the Page Playoffs at the 2013 Tim Hortons Brier in Edmonton, Alta., on Saturday, March 9, 2013. Manitoba beat Ontario. (Ian Kucerak/QMI Agency)
EDMONTON - In a Tim Hortons Brier that's had more than its share of holy bleep moments, chalk up another one.
An otherwise dull 1-2 game suddenly turned on its head when Manitoba's Jeff Stoughton took advantage of a rare miss by rival Glenn Howard of Ontario to score a dramatic and stunning 7-6 win over his long-time rival.
Stoughton moves into Sunday's 6:30 p.m. final while first-place finisher Howard must now take the long way home.
Howard, who finished first in the round-robin with a 10-1 record, found a unique way to lose his second straight game.
In what may have been a questionable call, instead to making an easy tap-back and take the game into an extra end, Howard gambled and lost.
Stoughton tempted Howard when he partially tucked his first shot behind Howard's shot rock biting top eight.
Instead of calling a short angle hit to remove the rock, Howard decided he'd try a game-winning angle double.
When it ticked off the guard, Stoughton had a draw for three.
"That one got away," said Howard. "That was a little unfortunate. Honestly, I threw a pretty good shot on the last one. I protected wide. There was lots of room, but it just curled, it just jumped like crazy. We couldn't hold it. It's not a great feeling. We felt we had that game."
