OTTAWA -- Alberta's Kevin Koe advanced to the semifinal at the Tim Hortons Brier on Saturday afternoon with a 7-5 win over Mike McEwen of Manitoba in the Page Playoff 3-4 game.

Koe will play Northern Ontario's Brad Jacobs in the evening semifinal for a berth in Sunday's gold-medal game against Brad Gushue. Newfoundland and Labrador advanced straight to the championship with a comeback win over Northern Ontario in the 1-2 game Friday night.

Koe had hammer after securing the No. 3 seed and used it to score a pair in the second end after an opening blank.

"They executed perfectly," McEwen said. "They got their deuce and forced us. That's not a very good feeling when a team is playing well. We saw last night that Gushue overcame that so we knew there was a chance.

"But we needed some help on their part and we didn't get any."

McEwen got on the board in the third with a single. He wrecked on a guard with his first throw in the fourth and had to make a nice double takeout just to leave Koe laying one.

The veteran Alberta skip delivered with a draw for the pair to move ahead 4-1. Koe kept the pressure on and forced McEwen to give up a steal of one in the fifth.

After the teams exchanged singles, McEwen drew the four-foot for a pair to cut the deficit to two points. Koe scored a single in the ninth and ran McEwen out of rocks in the 10th for the win.

"I think Mike and the rest of the teams left -- they're probably the best teams in the world," Koe said. "So hopefully we've got two more (wins) in us."

Koe threw at a clip of 91 per cent while McEwen was at 86 per cent. Alberta was at 93 per cent overall to 91 per cent for Manitoba.

Jacobs defeated Koe 8-3 in their round-robin game. Northern Ontario swept the round-robin before suffering its first loss of the competition to Gushue in the 1-2 game.

McEwen, who is making his Brier debut, will play Sunday afternoon for the bronze medal against the semifinal loser.

"You could have an amazing weekend and not win this," McEwen said. "We played really well and I'm still happy with being here on the weekend."

Announced attendance at TD Place was 8,424.

Alberta lead Ben Hebert was named to the second all-star team during a break before the fourth end. Gushue and third Mark Nichols of Newfoundland and Labrador were also named to the second team with second E.J. Harnden of Northern Ontario in voting by the Canadian Curling Reporters.

B.C. second Tyrel Griffith won the Ross Harstone Trophy for good sportsmanship. The first all-star team will be announced Saturday night.

Pat Simmons defeated Jacobs in last year's Brier final in Calgary. Simmons missed the playoffs this year after settling for a fifth-place finish in the round-robin standings.

The Brier champion will represent Canada at the men's world curling championship next month in Basel, Switzerland. The victor will also qualify for this year's Canada Cup in Brandon, Man., the 2017 Continental Cup in Las Vegas and will return as Team Canada at next year's Brier in St. John's.

Chelsea Carey won the Scotties Tournament of Hearts last month in Grande Prairie, Alberta. She will wear the Maple Leaf at the upcoming women's world curling championship in Swift Current, Sask.