Canada's Glenn Howard earned a spot in Sunday's gold-medal game with a 7-2 win over American Todd Birr in the 1 vs. 2 Page playoff Friday at the men's world curling championship in Edmonton.

"The first goal was to get to the 1-2 game, the second goal was to get to the final and the third goal is to win the gold medal for Canada on Sunday," said Howard.

Canadian skip Glenn Howard, right, jokingly takes aim at U.S. third Bill Todhunter, not pictured, as Richard Hart looks on before Canada's 7-2 win at the World Curling Championships in Edmonton on Friday.
(Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward)

The U.S. could get another crack at Canada by beating Germany in Saturday's semifinal (CBC, 12:30 p.m. ET).

The winner of that contest will meet Howard's Coldwater, Ont., rink in Sunday's championship final (CBC, 1:30 p.m. ET).

Howard's only loss in the round robin portion of the tournament came at the hands of the U.S., and another defeat seemed possible on Friday after the Canadian team had a shaky start through three ends.

The teams blanked the first two ends, but Howard managed a point in the third despite going wide on a hit-and-stick that would have scored two.

"I was a bit edgy at the beginning of three, and then about halfway through it I thought, 'Uh oh, there's a whole lot of bananas [yellow rocks] in there,'" said Howard.

"I thought I was going to have to draw against three or four, but fortunately we got out of it."

Remarkable run by Germany's Kapp

The tide began to turn in the fourth end, as Birr was too heavy on his first draw and then flashed on his second for back-to-back misses and a Canadian steal of two.

Canada built its lead to 4-0 in the fifth when Birr wrecked on a guard attempting to draw with his first stone, then missed an attempt to tap a second stone in to score two with his second throw.

Birr's botched takeout in the seventh led to another flash, and allowed Canada an open draw for three en route to the 7-2 victory.

An eighth end had to be played because the match was televised. So, much like in the recent Brier semifinal between Howard and Jeff Stoughton, the teams flung their rocks down the ice to end the game quickly.

"It wasn't my best game. The team played well. I did not," said Birr, who will meet Germany's Andy Kapp in the semifinal.

Kapp made a fantastic run on Friday to reach the semi, winning all three of his games, including tiebreakers against Markku Uusipaavalniemi of Finland, 8-5, and then Peja Lindholm of Sweden, 8-4.

Kapp capped off his run by defeating Ralph Stockli of Switzerland 6-4 in Saturday's 3 vs. 4 Page playoff game to advance.

With files from the Canadian Press