EDMONTON - Glenn Howard lived his worst nightmare Saturday afternoon at Rexall Place.

The defending Canadian men’s curling champion from Coldwater, Ont., believes his stellar 10-1 performance in the Tim Hortons Brier round robin should have been rewarded with a berth in Sunday’s final instead of having to play in the Page Playoff 1-2 game against a team that didn’t perform as well during the past week.

Now Howard also has to play in Sunday’s 8:30 a.m. semifinal (with the daylight savings time change overnight, no less) against the winner of the Page 3-4 game between Brad Gushue of Newfoundland Labrador and Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario.

Howard lost the Page 1-2 game 7-6 to Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton, who scored three in the 10th end to scramble from behind for an unexpected victory in front of 9,937 spectators.

“I thought I might have pulled the string on that last one,” said Stoughton, who had to rely upon his three teammates to sweep hard from the hog line just to get the winning point. “Thank goodness the guys got it there (to the top eight-foot).”

“We got horse (crap) lucky,” said Manitoba third Jon Mead, referring to misses by Howard and his third, Wayne Middaugh, in the final end. “We were starting to get our head around getting up at five with the time change and starting to play a semifinal. That’s the thinking, ‘Man, we just spent three hours out here to get that.’

“I haven’t even had a chance to think about where we really put ourselves now.”

Stoughton had a similar reaction.

“I haven’t digested this win. When something like that happens, it’s a little surreal just because you’re not expecting to win yet. You’re thinking, ‘Let’s get our deuce and go to the extra end.’ To pull it off now, I can’t wait — 6:30 (Sunday) night. It’s going to be fantastic. A little break.”

Stoughton, who has won the Brier final each of the three previous times he won the Page Playoff 1-2 game — in 1996, 1999 and 2011 — finished in a three-way tie for second place with an 8-3 record. He was two down coming home with the hammer, but Manitoba got a big break when Ontario third Wayne Middaugh’s last rock picked and missed an open takeout. Howard offset that unlucky miss with a double takeout on his first shot, but wrecked on his own rock in the top 12 attempting another double which would have ended Stoughton’s hopes of a comeback.

“I had a shot to win the game which really wasn’t that tough,” said Howard. “The yellow rock shouldn’t have been in play. Wayner (Middaugh) said, ‘You threw it great skipper,’ tons of ice and peel weight and it curled six inches, so I don’t know. Bottom line is, I missed.

“I would never have dreamt that I was ever going to tick my own (rock). Lo and behold, we did. I feel bad for the boys. We controlled that whole game.”

The Manitoba rink, which includes third Jon Mead, second Reid Carruthers and lead Mark Nichols, will play in Sunday’s final at 6:30 p.m., with Stoughton trying to join Edmonton’s Randy Ferbey and Kevin Martin along with Saskatchewan’s Ernie Richardson with a record four Brier titles as a skip.