It's the final showdown many curling fans were hoping for.

Defending Brier champion Glenn Howard of Ontario will meet two-time winner Kevin Martin of Alberta for the championship after Howard scored an 8-7 extra-end win over Saskatchwan's Pat Simmons in Saturday's semifinal in Winnipeg.

Team Ontario, from left, Brent Laing, Glenn Howard, Richard Hart and Craig Savill talk strategy between ends during Saturday's semifinal.
(Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

With Howard holding the hammer in the 11th, Simmons was forced to pick his poison: force the Ontario skip to execute either a takeout or a draw for the victory. Simmons chose the latter, putting his final stone on the eight-foot, and Howard coolly executed an in-turn draw to win it.

"What a game," Howard told CBC Sports. "I'm just happy to get out of that one."

The decisive shot propelled Howard into a highly anticipated matchup with the unbeaten Martin in Sunday's final at the MTS Centre (CBC, 6:30 p.m. ET).

The winner will represent Canada at the world men's curling championship in Grand Forks, N.D., beginning April 5.

"I think we're two of the best teams in the world, so it's going to be a good one," said Howard, who is making his third consecutive trip to the final, after losing the 2006 championship to Quebec's Jean-Michel Menard and defeating Olympic gold medallist Brad Gushue last year.

Martin seeking perfection

Martin — 12-0 at this year's Brier — defeated Howard 7-4 in the 15th round-robin draw Thursday. He later earned a spot in the final with a fortunate 8-7 win over Simmons in Friday night's 1-2 Page playoff.

Howard, who is also the reigning world champion, hopes to become the first skip in Brier history to come from the 3-4 playoff game to win the Canadian men's curling title. His rink of Richard Hart, Brent Laing and Craig Savill advanced to the semifinal by beating B.C.'s Rob Ursel 9-7 Friday afternoon.

If Martin, the World Curling Tour's top-ranked player, can beat Howard for the second time this week, he would capture his first Canadian title since 1997. He would also become the first skip to complete an unblemished Brier since fellow Edmontonian Randy Ferbey did it in 2003.

"There will be butterflies," said the Olympic silver medallist. "There always is. I think any competitor, when they go into a big game, if you don't feel butterflies I think you are in big trouble."

Simmons, on the other hand, can take comfort in the knowledge that he performed well in his first trip to the playoffs in four Brier appearances.

"The first five ends we were chasing them a little bit and just were not quite as sharp as we were [Friday] night," said Simmons, who fought back tears. "We hung in there and battled.

"You have to give yourself a chance to win and we did."

The hard-luck skip nearly shocked Martin in the 1-2 game, but saw his takeout attempt on the final stone of the match catch some debris, giving Martin an 8-7 win.

Simmons loses heartbreaker

The heartbreaker forced Simmons into Saturday's semifinal, which began to heat up in the seventh end when Howard drew for two with the hammer to take a 6-3 lead.

But the reigning champ proceeded to give his opponent an opening to even the game in the eighth. Howard's runback attempt with his last stone went awry, allowing Simmons a simple takeout to score three and pull even at 6-6.

Howard regained the lead in the ninth end with a takeout to count one. Simmons then forced an extra with a clutch takeout of his own, navigating a pair of Ontario rocks positioned at the top of the house to remove Ontario's shot stone from the four-foot.

But the effort was for naught. Howard's teammates did a fine job of keeping the sheet relatively free of rocks in the extra end, leaving their skip a clear path for his winning draw.

"We knew it was going to be tough," Simmons said. "Chances are it was going to take some sort of terrible misfortune, like we had. I wouldn't wish that upon them, that's for sure."

Simmons was hoping to become the first Saskatchewan skip to win the Canadian men's curling championship since Saskatoon's Rick Folk in 1980.

Sunday's final will also be streamed live at CBCSports.ca.