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Minnesota’s Phil Loadholt checks on fallen teammate Brett Favre after the quarterback was hit by the Saints’ Remi Ayodele, right, during the NFC championship game Sunday. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

They sure ain’t the Aints anymore.

The New Orleans Saints are heading to their first Super Bowl after battering Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings 31-28 in overtime Sunday on unheralded Garrett Hartley’s 40-yard field goal.

Favre threw away Minnesota’s best chance to win, tossing an interception deep in New Orleans territory in the closing seconds of regulation. Then the Saints won the coin toss and soon it was over.

The team that had no home five years ago after Hurricane Katrina ravaged its city and the Superdome overcame a slew of mistakes in the biggest game the Big Easy has ever seen.

“This is for everybody in this city,” said coach Sean Payton, the architect of the Saints’ turnaround. “This stadium used to have holes in it and used to be wet. It’s not wet anymore. This is for the city of New Orleans.”

Forget the paper bag masks and that long history of losing started in 1967. Moments after Hartley’s kick, they were toasting their hometown winners on Bourbon Street.

And in the Superdome, once a squalid refuge after Katrina, they boogied in the aisles as confetti covered the field.

“It’s a moment I’ve been waiting for for a long time and obviously we’re not done yet,” said Drew Brees, Payton’s hand-picked quarterback for the Saints’ renaissance.

The Saints (15-3) will meet Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts (16-2) in the Super Bowl in two weeks in Miami.

It’s the first time the top seeds in each conference made the big game since the 1993 season.

“Brett prepared us, but now we’ve got another challenge in Peyton,” safety Darren Sharper said.

Favre’s mistake costs Vikings

The biggest error was made by Favre. Flushed from the pocket, he seemed to have room to run to set up a field goal. Instead, the 40-year-old quarterback threw cross-field and was intercepted by Tracy Porter at the 22.

That finished Minnesota’s chance for its first Super Bowl trip in 33 years — and opportunity to win it for the first time.

The Vikings have lost five straight NFC title games.

“I’ve felt better,” said Favre, who looked every bit his 40 years. “It was a physical game. A lot of hits. You win that and you sure feel a lot better.”

New Orleans won the coin toss, Brees guided it to the Minnesota 22 and Hartley, suspended at the start of the season for using a banned stimulant, split the uprights 4:45 into OT.

“Just helping my team get to Miami,” Hartley said. “Just doing my part.”

The seesaw game saw All-Pro Adrian Peterson score three touchdowns for Minnesota and Saints running back Pierre Thomas get two.

The Vikings handily won the possession and yardage battles — Peterson rushed for 122 yards and Minnesota gained 475 overall. But the Vikings were undone by five turnovers, including three fumbles.

“We really gave those guys the game,” said Peterson, who peeked at the rousing celebrations on the Superdome floor. “Too many turnovers. It’s eating me up inside.”

The seemingly indestructible Favre was hurt on one of those turnovers, on a combination hit by Bobby McCray and Remi Ayodele while throwing his first interception. Despite being the closest Viking to the ball, he was helpless in the scramble to recover Percy Harvin’s fumble that seemingly turned the game in New Orleans’ favour early in the fourth period.

The Saints took over at the seven and, on third down, Reggie Bush caught Brees’ rollout pass by the right pylon. He was ruled out at the one, but Payton sprinted almost to the goal line to throw the red flag.

The challenge was upheld, and the dome rocked like never before — until Hartley’s winning field goal.

But Favre has been in enough hostile environs to be able to shrug at such challenges. He hit tight end Visanthe Shiancoe for 16 yards, Peterson ripped off a 20-yard run, and a pass interference against Porter set up Peterson’s tying two-yard rush with 4:58 to go.

“I would have loved to represent the NFC,” said Favre, who grew up in Mississippi a Saints fan. “But, as I told Sean throughout the year when we talked, if it’s not us, I hope it’s you guys.”

Venus Williams of the United States plays a forehand in her fourth-round match against Italy’s Francesca Schiavone during day eight of the 2010 Australian Open. (Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Venus Williams advanced to the Australian Open quarter-finals for the seventh time with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over Francesca Schiavone on Monday.

The sixth-seeded Williams, who lost the 2003 final to younger sister Serena in her best run so far at Melbourne Park, dropped a set to Schiavone for the first time in seven years but recovered to win a sixth consecutive match against the Italian player.

The Williams sisters are on track to meet in the semifinals, with top-ranked and defending champion Serena playing Australia’s Sam Stosur in a fourth-round match later Monday on Rod Laver Arena.

Venus struggled to hold serve in the first set but was in command by the end, when she won the last six games after Schiavone broke her to open the third.

“Francesca was playing so well. She was so tenacious, she has so much speed,” Williams said. “I had a little bit of a slow start.”

Williams’s win extends a streak in which at least one American woman has reached the Australian Open quarter-finals every year since 1977. She next plays the winner of Monday’s later match between No. 16 Li Na of China and U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.

Roddick advances

Four days after an angry outburst over the rules relating to replays and line calls, Andy Roddick got a crucial call in his favour in his fourth-round win over Fernando Gonzalez on Sunday.

Roddick held off the 2007 Australian Open finalist 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 to reach the quarters for the sixth time in eight years. He’ll meet No. 14 Marin Cilic of Croatia, who ousted U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro in five sets.

Roddick bucked the trend on a day of upsets that also resulted in fourth-round exits for two of the top women: No. 2 Dinara Safina, last year’s runner-up, and No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova, the reigning French Open champion.

“I got a little lucky, but sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good,” he said.

After wasting four set points in the 10th game of the fourth set, seventh-seeded Roddick rallied from 40-0 down in the 12th — Gonzalez’s next service game — to earn a fifth set point. Then he hit the contentious, dipping crosscourt forehand.

The ball was called out and Gonzalez didn’t take a swing. Roddick challenged the call immediately, and the evidence showed that the ball just caught the line, giving Roddick the set to level at two-all and igniting a protest from Gonzalez.

The Chilean argued that he could have had a play on the ball but chair umpire Enric Molina declined to replay the point.

The episode had a similar feel to the end of Roddick’s second-round win over Brazilian Thomasz Bellucci, when he angrily objected to a decision that went against him on a match point.

“I know he was pretty upset about the challenge and that rule no one seems to know about,” Roddick said of Gonzalez. “I can certainly sympathize with his frustrations.”

Gonzalez refused to blame one disputed call for turning the match.

“We played more than 200 points,” he said. “It was important, for sure, but it wasn’t the key of the match.”

Roddick said the knee problem that sidelined him at the end of last season was bothering him a bit, but it didn’t affect the game.

Upsets in women’s draw

Safina had to retire because of the recurrence of a back injury when she was serving at 5-4 down and 30-40 against Maria Kirilenko, who had upset 2008 champion Maria Sharapova in the first round.

Kirilenko next plays 2008 Wimbledon semifinalist Zheng Jie, who became the first Chinese player to reach the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park with a 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory over Alona Bondarenko.

Kuznetsova lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to Nadia Petrova, who went into the match after a 6-0, 6-1 third-round victory over U.S. Open champion Kim Clijsters.

While the seeded players dropped, former No. 1 Justine Henin continued her run in her first Grand Slam tournament in two years with a 7-6 (3), 1-6, 6-3 win over fellow Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, keeping her on track for a quarter-final meeting with Petrova.

Defending champion Nadal and No. 5 Andy Murray held off two of the tallest men and biggest servers in tennis to set up a quarter-final match up.

Nadal, who beat Roger Federer in the 2009 final, had a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over 6-foot-10 Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, and Murray overcame 6-foot-9 American John Isner 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-2.

No. 1 Federer and No. 3 Djokovic were playing fourth-round matches Monday.

Nestor wins twice

Toronto’s Daniel Nestor had a productive day teaming with Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic to win their third-round match in men’s doubles.

Then Nestor played with Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova to win their opening mixed doubles contest.

Pau Gasol (16) of the Los Angeles Lakers drives hard to the net, splitting defenders Andrea Bargnani (7) and Hedo Tukoglu (26) of the Toronto Raptors on Sunday in Toronto. (Ron Turenne/NBAE/Getty Images)

It’s what he was brought to Toronto to do.

With 1.2 seconds left in the game, Hedo Turkoglu nailed two clutch free throws to give the Raptors a 106-105 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.

Kobe Bryant missed the last-gasp attempt for his Lakers, and finished one assist shy of a triple double (27 points, 16 rebounds, nine assists).

Andrea Bargnani led the Raptors with 22 points and eight rebounds and gave his team their first lead of the game with 7:33 to go in the fourth quarter.

Beating the best team in the Western Conference did not come easy for Toronto. Forced to play catch-up for most of the first half, the Raptors never held a lead but managed to tie the game at 50 with 1:08 left in the second off a nice drive by Bargnani.

Los Angeles, on the strength of three consecutive jumpers in the late stages of the second quarter from Bryant, took a 56-54 lead into the second half.

Bryant had 14 first-half points, joining Pau Gasol (14), and Andrew Bynum (17) in double digits.

Chris Bosh paced the Raptors through the early stages of the game with 12 points while Jarrett Jack dropped in nine. Both players finished with 18 while Bosh pulled down 13 boards.

The Lakers jumped on the perpetually third-quarter sleepy Raptors to start the second half, opening a nine-point lead thanks to a 7-0 run.

Another slow 3rd quarter start

Toronto coach Jay Triano called a timeout to regroup his squad, and it appeared to work as Turkoglu hit his first three-pointer of the game to put his team on the board.

Turkoglu finished 1-for-2 from beyond the arc with nine points, none bigger than the final two of the game.

The Lakers pushed their lead to a game-high 10 through the midway point of the third but only took an 82-80 lead heading into the final quarter thanks to a late push from Marco Bellinelli.

The shooting guard had 15 points off the bench for the Raptors.

With less than two minutes to go in the third the Raptors lost Jose Calderon after colliding head-on with Derrick Fisher. The collision opened up a gash over the right eye of the Spanish guard and he had to go to the locker room. He returned to the bench in the fourth quarter.

With 8:24 to go in the game, Bargnani once again lifted his squad into a tie with a short jumper to make it 88-88 and soon after spotted Toronto to its first lead with a three-pointer to take a 93-90.

To keep the see-saw game going, L.A.’s Jordan Farmar replied with a three-ball of his own to knot the game back up with seven minutes to play.

With 15.3 seconds left, three seconds left on the shot clock and a slim one-point lead for the Lakers, Bryant missed a shot from beyond the arc and the Raptors gathered the rebound before calling a timeout of their own.

With 11.4 to go, Turkoglu took control, driving through the middle of the key before being fouled by Gasol with 1.2 seconds left.

With the two foul shots drained, it signalled the final of five lead changes in the final seven minutes of play.

The Canadian hot streak in men’s World Cup snowboarding came to an end Sunday on an icy mountain in Stoneham, Que.

A Canuck boarder had won gold in each of the first four parallel giant-slalom races to start the season, but a pair of powerful Austrian riders took the top podium spots away from the speedy Canadian team — on home turf to boot.

World No. 1 Benjamin (Benji) Karl beat Andreas Prommegger to win the gold Sunday. Prommegger took home the silver in an event packed with elite snowboarders.

Veteran Jasey-Jay Anderson of Mont-Tremblant, Que., won the bronze.

Anderson, who has two World Cup victories this season and ranks No. 2 in the world, said the hill’s icy conditions gave him a lot of trouble. He said he considered himself lucky to finish third.

“It was very intense, I felt like I was on a battlefield,” said Anderson, 34, who lost to Karl in the semifinals. “There’s not much you can do with this, just survival. It’s controlled mayhem, if that makes any sense.”

Toronto’s Michael Lambert took seventh place.

No guarantee for Lambert

Lambert needed a top-five finish to guarantee himself a spot on the Canadian Olympic team, but is still expected to make the squad.

“Obviously, right after the event, it stung a bit but I’m feeling good right now,” said Lambert, who lost to Prommegger in the quarter-final.

With the result, Prommegger, 29, bumped him out of the No. 3 rung in the World Cup rankings.

“Andy [Prommegger] rode really well today,” said Lambert, who beat his Austrian rival head to head earlier this month to win gold in Nendaz, Switzerland. “I know that he’s a competitor — I also know I can beat him.”

Matthew Morison of Burketon, Ont., who sat out Sunday’s race to rest an injured elbow, has the other Canadian victory for the men this season.

Morison, 22, is expected to be ready for the Olympics.

Karl, 24, said Canada’s Anderson-Lambert-Morison attack has been a force on the World Cup tour.

“They have a strong team — there are three riders who can win every time,” said Karl, who won for the third year in a row at Stoneham. “Yeah, I think they will give the hardest fight.”

Karl, who says he’s feeling better than he has all season, likes Cypress Mountain, the site of all snowboarding events during the Games.

“I had a really good training there,” the he said of last year’s visit. “I’m looking forward to the Olympics.”

The Austrians could also have a three-pronged attack of their own in Vancouver, if 2009 World Cup champion Siegfried Grabner returns from an ankle injury he suffered last month.

Anderson confident

Still, Anderson remains confident as he heads into his fourth Olympic Games.

“We have ferocious competitors right now in Benji and Andreas, who are very strong,” he said. “I’m a little more volatile than them, but when it’s my day I think it’s tough to count me out.”

In the women’s event Sunday, Caroline Calve of Aylmer, Que., who was also battling to make the Canadian squad, finished eighth.

“This day was challenging for me — just knowing that my parents are here, my friends, everyone,” she said after racing to her best result of the season. “It really is a boost for my confidence.”

Russia’s Svetlana Boldykova won the gold and her teammate, Alena Zavarzina, grabbed the silver. Nathalie Desmares of France captured the bronze.

Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning was too much to handle down the stretch for the New York Jets defence. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

The last time Peyton Manning’s Indianapolis Colts played the New York Jets, the future Hall of Famer was on the sidelines in the fourth quarter.

Not this time.

With a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, Manning led a potent Colts offence that scored 24 unanswered points en route to a 30-17 victory Sunday, putting the game out of reach with a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Dallas Clark at 8:57.

Colts head coach Jim Caldwell took a gamble when the 14-0 Colts faced the Jets in Week 16. With the game, and a perfect season on the line, he sat Manning and other starters in the fourth quarter. The Jets came back to win, ending the Colts’ record 23-game regular-season winning streak.

Caldwell wanted to make sure his players were fresh for the playoff grind ahead of them.

It seems to have paid off.

Colts hitting stride

Manning and his core of receivers showed no signs of fatigue, demonstrating that they are peaking at the right time. With his prime target Reggie Wayne facing tight coverage from the Jets’ Darelle Revis the entire game, Manning connected with Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon for two of his three TD strikes.

The Colts quarterback finished the game 26 for 39 attempts, passing for 377 yards.

The Jets got off to a strong start, building a 17-6 lead in the second quarter.

Rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez exploited the Colts secondary for a few big plays, leading to two touchdowns. One was an 80-yard strike to Braylon Edwards, the team’s longest TD of the season.

New York also used some trickery in its offence. Receiver Brad Smith took a direct snap and found Jerricho Cotchery behind the coverage for a 45-yard gain. It set up a Dustin Keller touchdown to give the Jets a 14-6 second quarter lead.

After kicker Jay Feeley extended the lead to 17-6, Manning responded with a quick three-play drive inside the two-minute warning, hitting the rookie Collie for two crucial receptions, including a 16-yard TD.

“We talked about being patient against these guys,” Manning said. “We knew it would be a four-quarter game. They have an excellent defence.”

Jets grounded in 2nd half

Prior to the game, much of the talk surrounded the Jets’ defence, which was billed as the best in the NFL. But in the second half of Sunday’s contest, the Indianapolis D stole the show, shutting out the Jets offence.

“The guys have always been a very confident bunch and they do a great job of hanging in there,” Caldwell said.

“Peyton had just an outstanding game,” Caldwell said. “He’s one of those guys that can adjust to different situations. … A real champion.”

Sanchez played with the poise and patience of a veteran, making perfect throws to receivers especially when they had defenders draped around them.

Sanchez, who was 17 for 30 for 257 yards, played mistake-free football until late in the fourth quarter, throwing his first interception after the outcome was already decided.

Despite his strong play, the Jets (11-8) were unable to score any points in the second half. Feeley missed two of three field goals, including a 52-yard miss in the third quarter that led to the Colts’ go-ahead touchdown.

“Today wasn’t our day. There’s no question,” Jets coach Rex Ryan said. “You have to give credit to the Colts. Obviously, they’re the cream of the crop right now.”

The Colts (16-2) face the NFC champion, either Minnesota or New Orleans, in the Super Bowl Feb. 7 in Miami.

It’s the second Super Bowl appearance in the past four years for the Colts, who beat the Chicago Bears for the NFL championship in 2007. Manning was the MVP.

The rescue of a hunter stranded on a drifting ice floe in the Northwest Passage is only hours away, his wife said Sunday.

A Canadian Forces helicopter from Nova Scotia is expected to lift David Idlout to safety from his icy raft in the darkness south of Resolute, Nunavut, early Monday, Tracy Kalluk said.

Blizzard-like conditions had delayed the helicopter’s journey, but Kalluk reiterated forecast reports that the weather was improving.

Idlout, 39, left Friday on a seal hunt and was hunting at the edge of the sea ice, about 15 kilometres from Resolute, Nunavut, when a large chunk of ice broke free and he drifted out to sea.

The experienced hunter had a satellite phone with him and called his wife, Tracy. She called her father who called the coast guard. Idlout built himself an ice shelter and has spent two nights on the ice.

Idlout’s wife, who has been talking to him every two hours said, her husband is well-versed in cold weather survival.

Early attempts at a rescue were thwarted when a helicopter sent to Resolute to pluck the man off the ice was unable to take off due to mechanical problems.

Rescuers have since dropped food, water, a tent, fuel and a locator beacon to him — but they haven’t been able to get any closer to pick him up because of strong winds, snow and ice pellets in the area.

Resolute remains under a blizzard warning. There’s poor visibility and winds of 50 km/h, gusting to 80 km/h. But a gradual improvement in the weather was expected Sunday evening.

With files from The Canadian Press

Inter Milan’s Macedonian forward Goran Pandev is jubilant Sunday after scoring during the Italian Serie A football match against A.C. Milan. (Damien Meyer/AFP/Getty Images)

Goals from Diego Milito and Goran Pandev gave Inter Milan a 2-0 win over city rival AC Milan on Sunday, extending its lead at the top of the Serie A to nine points.

Inter played most of the match with 10 men after midfielder Wesley Sneijder was sent off for sarcastically applauding referee Gianluca Rocchi and it finished with only nine on the pitch after Lucio was also red-carded for a deliberate handball in second-half stoppage time.

The result means Inter remains top with 49 points. Milan is second on 40, though Leonardo’s side has a match in hand.

Inter made the better start, with Sneijder twice going close. He hit the outside of the post with a long-range shot and then forced Milan goalkeeper Dida into a sharp save from close range.

Milito opened the scoring in the 10th minute after his strike partner Pandev found him behind Milan’s defence and the Argentine shot low under Dida.

Inter went down to 10 men in the 27th minute when Sneijder was dismissed. Until then, the Dutchman had been dominating the midfield and his teammates had to lead him away from referee Rocchi and off the pitch.

Milan began the second half more brightly and Inter keeper Julio Cesar had to be alert to stop Clarence Seedorf’s close-range header, while Ronaldinho went close moments later with a shot from the edge of the area.

Milan’s Marco Borriello then twice headed on target as David Beckham began to find more space to cross from the right wing.

However, it was Inter that added to the scoreline, Pandev curling home a free kick in the 65th minute after Giuseppe Favalli brought down Maicon.

Cesar stopped Milan from adding a consolation goal in injury time when he saved Ronaldinho’s penalty after Lucio had been sent off.

Palermo moves up with win

In Sunday’s earlier games, Abel Hernandez scored twice and Igor Budan once to help Palermo to a 3-0 win over Fiorentina that took the Sicilian side up to fifth.

Palermo has 34 points, three behind Napoli in fourth place. Napoli beat Livorno 2-0, with Cristian Maggio scoring in the first half and Luca Cigarini adding a free kick in second-half injury time after Livorno goalkeeper Alfonso De Lucia was sent off for a deliberate handball.

Juventus, which lost 2-1 at home to AS Roma on Saturday, has slipped to sixth place following five losses in six matches.

Palermo took the lead in the 28th minute. Fabio Miccoli shot from the edge of the area and hit the bar but Hernandez reacted fast and headed into the open goal.

The Uruguayan doubled his tally in the 37th, running through to steer the ball between goalkeeper Sebastien Frey’s legs after Juan Pastore had slipped a pass through the Fiorentina defence.

Budan added the third in the 57th minute when Fabio Liverani flicked on Miccoli’s free kick and the Croatian spun round and volleyed past Frey.

“I am very happy with the match,” Palermo coach Delio Rossi said. “We wanted a good showing and I am happy for the guys.

“The Champions League is still a far off dream, but we shall see,” Rossi said. “I haven’t done much, the praise should go to the players who believe in what we are doing.”

Lucarelli’s missed chances

Napoli went on to win its game after Livorno striker Cristiano Lucarelli squandered a great chance to open the scoring in the 29th minute, heading over from close range, and then missed a penalty in the second half.

“I am very proud of what these players did,” Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri said. “Today we had a lot of players missing and it was an important test for us.”

Shortly before the break, Napoli had a strike by German Denis ruled out as the Argentine was offside, but Maggio made no mistake in first-half injury time. Cigarini hit a long pass from the back and Maggio volleyed home his fourth goal of the season.

Nine minutes into the second half, Michele Pazienza fouled Livorno’s Martin Bergvold in the area, but Napoli goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis saved Lucarelli’s penalty and the striker hit the rebound wide.

“We are still a bit naive and nearly threw away the result,” Mazzarri said. “We were missing a few players and our resources were stretched, but we stuck to our job and that bodes well for the future.”

In the closing minutes, De Lucia was dismissed for his handball on the edge of the area. Midfielder Davide Marchini went in goal, and could do little to stop Cigarini scoring with a free kick.

Also Sunday it was: Bologna 2 Bari 1; Genoa 2 Atalanta 0; Lazio 1 Chievo Verona 1; Siena 1 Cagliari 1; and Udinese 2 Sampdoria 3.

Rudolf Schenker, Matthias Jabs, Klaus Meine, James Kottak and Pawel Maciwoda of the Scorpions pose backstage at a charity concert in 2006 in London, England. The band will launch a three-year farewell tour in May. (Jo Hale/Getty Images)

German rockers the Scorpions say they will be launching a farewell tour this spring, ready to exit the stage after a 40-year run.

The band announced on its website Sunday that “we agree we have reached the end of the road.”

The band — with hits such as Still Loving You, Rock You Like a Hurricane, No One Like You and Wind of Change — was founded in Hannover in 1965 by guitarist Rudolf Schenker and drummer Wolfgang Dziony, who left in 1973. Singer Klaus Meine joined a few years later.

The band, which has sold more than 100 million records, has gone through a merry-go-round of four bassists, six drummers and two guitarists.

Current members include Schenker, Meine, Matthias Jabs (guitar), Pawel Maciwoda (bass) and James Kottak (drums, percussion)

The band thanked their fans and said their March release, Sting in the Tail, would be their last.

“While we were working on our album these past few months, we could literally feel how powerful and creative our work was … We finish our career with an album we consider to be one of the best we have ever recorded,” said the statement.

In May, they will embark on a three-year concert odyssey around the world, spanning five continents and starting with a concert in Leipzig.

So far, other dates planned include Switzerland, France and Russia with more to be announced.

“We’d rather go out with a killer album and follow our hearts. We achieved everything you can achieve with a rock band,” Meine told German paper Bild am Sonntag.

Kevin Martin and his rink are off to Vancouver with a good win under their belts. (Canadian Press file)

Kevin Martin and his Alberta foursome are off to the blazing media heat of the Vancouver Olympics with a needed win under their belts.

The Canadian men’s representative for the 2010 Games beat archrival Team Howard 5-4 on Sunday afternoon at the BDO Classic Canadian Open in Winnipeg — the last competitive match the foursome will play before leaving for the West Coast.

Martin left Glenn Howard having to put an in-turn draw into the four-foot as shot stone to stay alive in the eighth and final end, but the Ontario-based skip came up just short.

With the victory, the Alberta rink, also including third John Morris, second Marc Kennedy and lead Ben Hebert, won $25,000.

Team Howard, with third Richard Hart, second Brent Laing and lead Craig Savill, earned $17,500.

After qualifying for the Olympics by beating Howard in the trials a month ago, Martin’s rink had played poorly at the last Grand Slam event and was looking to rebound.

“It’s nice we played a solid game, against real tough competition,” Martin told Scott Russell of CBC Sports. “It bodes well going forward and now we have a couple of weeks to get ready.”

This was Martin’s 14th Grand Slam title, but he hadn’t won since 2007.

“We were stuck on 13 for a while,” he said. “It’s so hard to win one of these things, so 14 means a lot.”

Quick lead

Martin was off early, picking up two with the hammer in the first end, taking advantage of a Howard error.

With two of Martin’s yellows in the ice, Howard tried for a double takeout, but only picked up the front one, leaving his rival with an easy hit and stick for the pair.

A rocky second end saw both teams commit errors, but in the end a nice final rock by Martin eliminated two of Howard’s and forced the Ontario skip to take one, cutting the lead to 2-1.

That went to 4-1 in the third when Martin left Howard looking at curling’s version of the famous bowling 7-10 split, with one on each side of the 12-foot circle.

Howard did all he could by taking out the one on the left, but Martin easily eliminated to score two.

After settling for one with the hammer in the fifth end to make it 4-2, Howard left Martin with a chance for three after a sixth that was spent battling around the four foot.

But Martin couldn’t get the big score, though he did nudge in for one for 5-2 heading to the seventh, where Howard took advantage of an open hit for two to make it 5-4 coming home, hammer to the Alberta rink.

This photo, released by the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, shows the destruction in the town of Léogâne, about 50 kilometres outside Port-au-Prince. (Logan Abassi/MINUSTAH/AP)The confirmed death toll from the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake has topped 150,000 in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area alone, Haiti’s communications minister said Sunday, with many more thousands dead around the country or still buried under the rubble.

Communications minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said the figure is based on a body count in the capital and outlying areas by a state company that has been collecting corpses and burying them in a mass grave north of Port-au-Prince.

It does not include other affected cities such as Jacmel, where thousands are believed dead, nor does it account for bodies burned by relatives.

Reports have varied on how many are known to have died, and the United Nations stuck with its previous total of 111,481 bodies recovered despite the higher number from Haitian officials.

All told, authorities estimate 200,000 people were killed by the magnitude-7.0 quake, according to Haitian government figures cited by the European Commission.

“Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble — 200,000, 300,000?” Lassegue said Sunday. “Who knows the overall death toll?”

Experts say chances are slim that more survivors will be found in that debris, although rescuers tunnelled through the wreckage of a fruit and vegetable shop on Saturday to extract a man trapped there for 11 days.

Survivor hunkered under desk, recited psalms

Wismond Exantus, 24, said he survived by diving under a desk during the quake and later consuming cola, beer and cookies in the cramped space. He passed the time praying, reciting psalms and sleeping while waiting for rescuers.

“I wasn’t afraid because I knew they were searching and would come for me,” he said Sunday while convalescing on a blue cot in a French field hospital tent. Doctors expected him to remain there for a few days.

Haiti’s government has declared an end to searches for living people trapped under debris, and officials are shifting their focus to caring for the thousands of survivors living in squalid, makeshift camps.

UN relief workers said the shift is critical: While deliveries of food, medicine and water have ticked up after initial logjams, the need continues to be overwhelming and doctors fear outbreaks of disease in the camps.

Doctors Without Borders reported that some its medical teams were beginning to see more patients with “infections or complications following basic or amateur attempts at treatment in the early days of the aftermath.”

Food distributed in capital’s worst slum

In the notorious slum of Cité Soleil, the site of some looting and violence since the quake, U.S. and Brazilian soldiers handed out food and water Sunday morning to thousands of men, women and children who lined up at a health centre.

The U.S. soldiers brought 2,000 food rations, 75,000 high-energy biscuits and 9,000 bottles of water, while the Brazilians had 8 tons of food in small bags of uncooked beans, salt, sugar and sardines, as well as 15,000 litres of water.

Lunie Marcelin, 57, said her entire family — including six grown children who live with her — survived the quake, but they had no money to buy food. The handouts “will help us, but it is not enough,” she said. “We need more.”

In the United States, organizers of the all-star “Hope for Haiti Now” telethon said Saturday that the event raised more than $58 million US — and counting. The two-hour telethon aired Friday night and was also streamed live online. Stars such as Brad Pitt, Beyonce, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and more used their presence to encourage donations for Haiti.

As many as 200,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince, a city of two million, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development. About 609,000 people are homeless in the capital’s metro area, and the United Nations estimates that up to a million could leave Haiti’s destroyed cities for rural regions already struggling with extreme poverty.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Sunday it has recorded 52 aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 or greater since the Jan. 12 quake.