Glenn Howard won his third straight Masters of Curling title on Sunday. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press file photo)

Skip Glen Howard hit a successful runback with last rock in the ninth end for his third consecutive Masters of Curling championship on Sunday in Waterloo, Ont.

Howard prevailed 4-3 over Edmonton's Kevin Koe in the first of the four Grand Slam events for the season.

"It was a great game," Howard told CBC Sports. "A couple of ends went back and forth, I know we were scoring ones along the way, but man, there was all kinds of shots made.

"Kudos to my guys, they make a ton of shots in front of me, and fortunately I made the last one."

The Coldwater, Ont., native has now won three straight Grand Slams dating back to last year and six overall. His teammates are Rich Hart, Brent Laing and Craig Savill.

The team has won all five events they've entered to begin this season. Howard's Masters championship was his sixth career Grand Slam title.

"Pinch me I'm dreaming, I just can't quite believe it's going on," said Howard. "But again, the guys are making so many shots. It's so much fun and I'm going to ride this wave and hopefully keep [it] going."

The winner of the National will be crowned in Quebec City on CBC on Dec. 7. The Canadian Open in Winnipeg and Players' Championship in Grande Prairie, Alta., will follow in 2009

The result left Koe still searching for his first Slam although he is still very much in the hunt for Olympic trials qualifying.

"I thought we played pretty good," said Koe. "We had our chance in the eighth to get our deuce and that's the way we played it. We missed one [shot] that end and it ended up hurting us."

The championship matchup was a rematch of last year's final in Saskatoon, when Howard beat Koe 7-3.

This final was fought tooth-and-nail, with not so much as a two-point advantage at any point during the proceedings. Howard never trailed, getting points in the second, fourth and sixth ends.

Koe responded in the third, fifth and eighth to force extra ends.

Howard captured the championship after executing a short run back on his final shot to remove Koe's stone.

Howard advanced to the final on Saturday by beating Reid Carruthers and Jeff Stoughton.

After a 3-2 preliminary, Koe needed to play three times on Saturday to advance. He overcame Ulsrud, Kevin Martin and Brad Gushue.

His crew includes Blake MacDonald, Carter Rycroft and Nolan Thiessen.

The Grand Slams are part of the Canadian Curling Association's qualifying process for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Based on their performances at the Slams, teams can earn points toward a berth at the 2009 Canadian Olympic trials.

Howard and Martin already qualified.