Birr’s team rallied from a three-point deficit to earn an 8-6 extra-end win over Heath McCormick’s team, forcing the tiebreaker at the Baxter Arena, Omaha.

The teams both finished with a 5-3 win-loss record in the round robin play and will face each other to determine who will take on top-seeded John Shuster’s squad in the best-of-three playoff to represent the US at the Pyeongchang 2018 Games.

Birr’s team of  John Benton, Hunter Clawson and Tom O’Connor took advantage of mistakes by McCormick’s side and scored four points in the middle ends without having the last rock.

“There’s a lot of experience on this team, we’ve all been through this before multiple times,” Birr said. 

“Personally, I just didn’t get that excited about (being behind early). It wasn’t like this was the game, so you just keep playing."

McCormick admitted the pressure of the situation got to his team.

"We struggled to make a few shots there, and they had a lot of pressure on us," he said.

“I missed my last shot in the fourth end, which was obviously not good.”

In the morning session Birr’s team had conceded to Shuster after trailing 7-2 through six ends.

Shuster’s squad, which already clinched the top seed in the playoff, lost to Craig Brown’s squad 5-4 in the evening session. 

Brown’s team scored two in the 10th end, which was the only time it had the lead.

In the women’s draw, Jamie Sinclair’s team posted a 4-2 win over Cory Christensen’s squad to earn the top seed in the playoff.

Sinclair’s squad of Alex Carlson, Vicky Persinger and Monica Walker started round-robin play 1-2 but won their final three matches.

“All week, we’ve just been slowly getting better, figuring out the ice, figuring out the rocks,” Sinclair said. 

“Hopefully that trend continues into the playoffs.

“We had two losses early on in the week, we were playing well, so we just had to stay patient, knowing we were doing everything well, and that our time will come around."

Sinclair’s quartet will face Nina Roth’s side in the playoff. 

Roth’s team beat Christensen’s side 8-6 to post a 4-2 record in round robin play.