Pat Simmons of Team Canada won the Brier last year as the vice for Kevin Koe.

He can do it all again this evening at the Saddledome in Calgary, but this time he's in charge of his own squad.

Simmons and Canada will battle Olympic champion Brad Jacobs and his rink from Northern Ontario in the Brier final tonight on TSN1, TSN3, TSN4 and TSN 5 starting at 7pm ET/4pm pt.

This is the first year a team has sported Canadian colours as the defending champs and some might say it's a little bit of a surprise the Alberta foursome of Simmons, third John Morris, second Carter Rycroft and lead Nolan Thiessen has made it this far given where they were earlier in the week.

John Morris, who joined the team this season, was the skip to start the Brier, but stepped down after the team struggled to a 2-3 start. Simmons took over the full skip duties and the group never looked back going 7-1 the rest of the way to book their trip to the final. Canada edged Saskatchewan's Steve Laycock in the Page Playoff 3vs4 game and Brad Gushue of Newfoundland and Labrador in the semifinal. 

"The keys weren't fitting into the keyholes early in the week and we switched it up," Morris told the Canadian Press. "That's the lineup we needed. It just seemed like everything started coming more naturally. Pat's been a great leader out there."

Jacobs, on the other hand, will be going for his second straight Brier title. His Sault Ste. Marie rink of third Ryan Fry, second E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden won the Canadian championship in 2013, but weren't at last year's Brier because they were too busy winning gold in Sochi, Russia for Canada.  

Northern Ontario rolled this week in Calgary, sporting a 10-1 record during the round robin and beat Gushue in the Page Playoff 1vs2 game on Friday night.

Jacobs beat Simmons 6-3 in Draw 16 on Thursday night in the team's only matchup.