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A series of shootings left 24 people dead Saturday in a Pacific coast state plagued by drug gang violence. Nearly half died in one shootout between soldiers and armed men.

The gunbattle erupted when attackers opened fire on soldiers patrolling the small town of Ajuchitlan del Progreso, said Valentin Diaz, director of the Guerrero state investigative police. Ten gunmen and one soldier were killed, he said.

Diaz said the shootout broke out in the middle of the day in the centre of the town as it was full of bystanders. He said state police were investigating and soldiers had reinforced security.

President Felipe Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of troops to Guerrero and other drug-trafficking hotspots across Mexico in an effort to root out cartels. Gang violence has surged since the crackdown started three years ago, claiming more than 17,900 lives.

Thirteen other people were killed in Guerrero in several other incidents before dawn, according to a state police report.

Two decapitated men were found on a scenic road packed with nightclubs in the resort city of Acapulco. Another man was found shot to death on the edge of the city.

Elsewhere, gunmen killed five police officers on patrol in Tuncingo, a rural area outside Acapulco. In the same area, police found the bullet-ridden bodies of five other men, including two who had been beheaded.

Police mentioned no possible motives, and it was unclear whether the killings were related.

Several cartels are fighting over drug dealing turf and trafficking routes in Guerrero. Gang violence occurs nearly every day in the state, but Saturday was unusually bloody.

Farther to the south in the state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala, a grenade explosion inside a car killed one man and wounded another. State prosecutors said the dead man was holding the weapon when it exploded.

Investigators believe the victim belonged to the Zetas drug gang and had been about to throw the grenade at federal police offices in the state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez.

Alberta skip Kevin Koe took the long way to the Brier final. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

Alberta skip Kevin Koe has survived two playoff games to advance to the final at the Brier, preserving his province’s hopes of claiming its third consecutive Canadian men’s curling championship.

Koe, 35, beat an upstart team from Northern Ontario 10-3 Saturday night, hours after he ousted Newfoundland and Labrador in the 3-versus-4 Page playoff game.

Making his first appearance at the Brier, Koe will face Ontario and undefeated skip Glenn Howard for the title on Sunday night.

“I reckon the Koe gang is a lot more experienced than people let on,” Howard said earlier Saturday. “Playing in a lot of those Grand Slams and the [Olympic] trials, that’s just a huge experience.”

And that experience showed in the nightcap. As he did in the first game of the day, Koe jumped out to an early lead against Northern Ontario and its young skip, Brad Jacobs. He stole two in the first end and took two more in the second when Jacobs, 24, was long on an open draw with the hammer.

Koe opened a 7-2 lead with a score of three in the fifth end, effectively removing the kind of drama that had been allowed to against Newfoundland and Labrador. Koe held a 4-1 lead after three ends in that game, but allowed veteran skip Brad Gushue to climb back into contention with a steal in the seventh.

That uprising continued right until Koe released his final shot of the 10th end, a clean draw to the button that broke the 5-5 tie to win the game.

Emerging from shadows

Koe has been fighting for years to emerge from the shadows cast by the two powerhouse rinks based in his home province. Kevin Martin and Randy Ferbey have ruled Alberta for the better part of two decades, with one skip or the other advancing to win the Brier eight times since 1991.

It was a two-man show, and Koe was stuck in the studio audience until this year. Koe posted an 8-3 record in the round robin, but finished third in the standings after a loss to Ontario in the final draw on Thursday night.

He said he had not seen much of Northern Ontario, except to note that “they just look like they’re a young team playing with a lot of confidence.”

Most of that had vanished by the end of Saturday.

Alberta has won the Brier 24 times since 1927, second only to Manitoba (26) for the all-time lead. Martin had posted flawless 13-0 records to claim each of the previous two championships, extending his already considerable shadow.

Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask, left, makes a save against Montreal’s Tomas Plekanec on Saturday. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)

Sergei Kostitsyn scored two goals as the Montreal Canadiens won their season-high fifth straight in a 3-2 victory over the the Boston Bruins 3-2 on Saturday night.

Andrei Markov also scored and Dominic Moore had two assists for the Canadiens (35-29-3), who strengthened their hold on an Eastern Conference playoff spot by moving seven points up on the ninth-place New York Rangers.

Blake Wheeler and Milan Lucic scored for the eighth-place Bruins (30-25-12), who are four points back of Montreal but still have three games in hand.

Jaroslav Halak has won every game on the Canadiens’ current streak, stopping 21 of 23 shots Saturday. No save was more vital than Halak’s post-to-post stop on Marco Sturm to preserve a one-goal lead with just over four minutes to play in regulation.

Tuuka Rask made 24 saves for the Bruins, including two fantastic ones on Tomas Plekanec on a first-period breakaway and a second-period rising shot from the slot. But Rask misplayed a routine dump-in early in the third period, allowing Kostitsyn to score what turned out to be the winning goal.

It was Kostitsyn’s third goal in the past two games, more than doubling his season total to five.

The Canadiens jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, making it the second time in 14 games the Bruins allowed the first goal of the game.

Markov sneaks one by

With Mark Stuart in the penalty box, Markov got his fifth of the year at 6:02 when his harmless looking wrist shot from the blue line got tipped past Rask by Bruins defenceman Dennis Seidenberg.

Markov was also the catalyst for Montreal’s second goal, heading behind the net with the puck before going against the grain to pass it back to Sergei Kostitsyn, who tapped it in for his fourth of the year and second in two games.

The Bruins cut the deficit in half early in the second when former Canadien Michael Ryder streaked down the left wing and found Wheeler rushing to the net for his 16th of the season at 1:12.

There was a blindside hit thrown by Andrei Kostitsyn on Lucic late in the second period. Lucic was hit just after sending the puck into the corner and didn’t see Kostitsyn coming. Kostitsyn was called for interference on the play, while Lucic also drew a roughing minor for retaliating.

Sergei Kostitsyn re-established Montreal’s two-goal margin early in the third, pouncing on Rask’s gaffe and putting it in the empty net for his fifth of the season at 1:41.

Lucic brought Boston back to within a goal, his seventh of the season, at 11:46 with a long wrist shot that sailed past a screened Halak.

Sturm had Boston’s best chance to tie it late when Mark Recchi set him up in close, but he couldn’t beat Halak.