They didn’t make it east on themselves, but Saskatchewan was successful in their tiebreaker Thursday morning, pulling out a 9-7 win in the extra end over New Brunswick at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts at Mosaic Place.

Saskatchewan didn’t have time to speak to media after the match as they were right back on the ice at 12:30 to play PEI in their first match of the championship round.

In the other match, B.C. defeated Nova Scotia 5-4 to move to the championship round as well.

Andrea Crawford’s New Brunswick rink pulled off what some would consider a surprise tiebreaker appearance after an 0-3 start to the round robin.

“We did get off to a bit of a rough start so I think we were really happy with the four wins we pulled together,” Crawford said. “We gave it our all out there today. I think we have to be pleased with how we finished. Obviously disappointed with the loss but happy to have pulled together in the second half the way we did.”

Crawford said she couldn’t pinpoint any specific difference between the way the two teams played this morning.

“We felt like we were just a hair off with everything,” she said.  “Just not sharp enough throwing and it just resulted in those half-shots.”

Thursday afternoon’s first championship round matches see Saskatchewan play PEI, Manitoba face BC, Northern Ontario takes on Ontario and Canada is against Wildcard.