REGINA -- It wasn't the outcome he wanted, but John Epping headed home from his first Canadian men's curling championship knowing he's a contender for the title
Epping's Ontario team fell 6-4 to Alberta's Brendan Bottcher in Sunday's semifinal at the Tim Hortons Brier.
Bottcher earned a showdown with defending champion Brad Gushue in the final at night.
Epping, third Matt Camm, second Patrick Janssen and lead Tim March out of Leaside Curling Club in Toronto were the second-seeded playoff team after going 9-2 in the tournament.
But Epping ran into a pair of hot skips in the playoffs. Gushue shot 100 per cent in Saturday's Page playoff between the top two seeds in a 6-2 win.
Bottcher's hitting game contained Ontario offence in the semifinal.
"We really can win this thing, which I think is nice to know," Epping said after Sunday's loss. "Coming in, you don't know.
"You want to do well and make the playoffs, but just being out there every game, it was just so comfortable today. It makes me want to come back and get another chance."
Epping was the Brier rookie who didn't seem like a rookie given his experience in Olympic trials, Grand Slam tournaments and Canada Cups.
He finally won this year's Ontario championship after losing finals in 2015 and 2016 and finishing third in 2017.
Epping had hammer to start the semifinal as the higher seed. After getting his deuce in the first end, Ontario wasn't able to muster another multi-point end.
Botther's hit and roll in the fifth bailed Alberta out of trouble and kept Epping from scoring multiple points.
Tied up 3-3 after six ends, Epping was heavy and wide on a draw to the button and gave up a steal of two to Alberta.
"The weight was good. I just took a little too much ice," the skip said. "A broom less and probably good and right to the button.
"We didn't get great rock position early in ends. We struggled to put a lot of pressure on them. Brendan made some great shots today, don't get me wrong. But we definitely could have been better, all of us."
Bottcher went 8-3 to make the Brier playoffs. Alberta eliminated tournament heavyweight Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario from contention with a 6-5 win in an extra end in Saturday's playoff game.
"It's remarkable," Bottcher said. "We've done everything we wanted to do this week. We've beaten so many good teams. I want to go out there in my final and play our best one more time and hopefully it's enough.
"We're going to be the huge underdogs to Brad Gushue. There isn't a whole lot of pressure on us and I feel like there's a ton of pressure on him."
