Symonds downs Smith to force the need for a final rematch at Tankard provincial men's curling championship

It will take a two-part final to decide the winner of the 2018 Tankard provincial men’s curling championship.
Andrew Symonds and his rinkmates downed Greg Smith’s previously undefeated team 9-4 Saturday at the Re/Max Centre in St. John’s to create the need a second game to decide the title.
That game will be played 1 p.m. Sunday at the Re/Max Centre, which is home to both teams.
Smith had earned a direct berth to the final with a 8-0 round-robin record. In going unbeaten, he triggered the rule that says  a lossless team has to be beaten twice to be denied the crown.
Symonds had finished 6-2 in the round robin of the nine team event, the same as Adam Boland, and those two rinks met in a semifinal Saturday morning, with Symonds prevailing 6-4.
In the Saturday-night games against Smith, Symonds stole three points in the fifth end for a 7-2 lead and cruised the rest of the way as the teams traded single points the rest of the way, with Smith eventually conceding.
The winner of Sunday’s game will represent Newfoundland and Labrador at the Brier Canadian men’s championship in early March in Regina, where Brad Gushue and his St. John’s rink will wear Team Canada colours as defending champions. That meant Gushue, who had won the last 11 Tankards, didn’t compete in this year’s all-Newfoundland final.