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And then there were four.

The Canada Cup is down to the finals. Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers clashes with former teammate Mark Nichols of St. John’s, N.L., for a berth to next year’s Olympic Trials.

Meanwhile, Ottawa’s Rachel Homan faces Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones on the women’s side. Both Homan and Jones actually have their Trials spots already locked up, so they’ll be playing with house money to prove who’s No. 1.

Here are five things we learned at the Canada Cup Saturday:

Carruthers cools Epping’s second-half surge, but just barely

After flubbing the draw with his last in the 10th, Carruthers coolly drew for the winning point in the extra end to hold off John Epping 6-5 and advance to the final.

It was an uphill battle for Epping as he put too much heat on his last in the fourth end giving up a steal of two and falling behind 3-0 early.

Facing four counters with his last in the fifth end, Epping landed on the lid to get on the board with a single heading into halftime.

Epping made a tricky attempt at a triple in six, but stuffed one of them and Carruthers just needed to ease his last into the house for a deuce and a four-point advantage.

That’s when the momentum shifted. Epping cut the deficit in half taking two in the seventh end then stole one in eight to close within one point.

Following a blank in nine, Epping was strategically sound during the 10th end sitting shot stone plus another up top in the house. Carruthers attempted the draw, but rubbed off and gave up the steal to erase the deficit and force the decisive extra frame.

There was no double extra end like their Champions Cup clash with Carruthers coming through on his second take for the draw shot victory.

Carruthers and Nichols now square off for a spot to the Olympic Trials. The two were front-end partners for a couple seasons on Jeff Stoughton’s squad during the previous quadrennial cycle and won the Canada Cup together in 2012.

Nichols may hold the edge as he outlasted Carruthers 7-6 during the round-robin portion and also scored a 7-3 victory when they faced off last month in the Tour Challenge.

It’ll likely be Nichols’s last game as interim skip as he plans to hand the reins back to Brad Gushue, who is aiming to return from his hip/groin injury and make his season debut Tuesday night at the Boost National in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

December déjà vu: Epping heating up again

Credit to Epping and his Toronto team for not only bouncing back in the semifinal match, but also in the Canada Cup as a whole.

Epping fell behind the 8-ball starting the tournament with a 0-3 record and was pretty much in “go big or go home” mode to stay in the mix from there.

The team rolled off three consecutive wins to bring their record level at the conclusion of round-robin play. Most importantly they defeated fellow 3-3 teams Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie and Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock to avoid the morning tiebreaker round while those two duked it out.

Laycock thumped Jacobs 9-3 to take on Epping in the afternoon’s second tiebreaker. The well-rested Epping was on once again making one of his trademark angle raises to eliminate two and score a pair in the eighth end. He then limited Laycock to just a single in nine to lead 7-5 with the hammer coming home.

Epping kept the 10th clean leaving Laycock nowhere to hide with just one counter in the house. He didn’t even need to throw the final rock of the game as Laycock’s last went through the rings and out the back door.

This is the second consecutive year Team Epping made it to the semifinals at the Canada Cup and if history repeats itself it sets them up nicely entering the next Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event. If you may recall, Epping rolled through the Meridian Canadian Open posting an undefeated 6-0 record, including a perfect game in the final, to earn his third career Grand Slam title last December.

Homan holds off Einarson

Defending champ Rachel Homan powered past Kerri Einarson of East St. Paul, Man., 9-4 to punch her ticket to another Canada Cup women’s final.

Einarson, fresh off of a spirited tiebreaker win over Edmonton’s Val Sweeting, was in control to start holding Homan to one in the first and scored a deuce in the second when she ran Homan’s stone back across the face of another counter to push them both out and count two.

Homan was limited to just another point in the fourth, but grabbed the lead for good stealing three in the fourth end to pull ahead 5-2 as Einarson ran into a guard on her last and the game slipped away.

The teams alternated singles in five and seven, Einarson added another in eighth, and shook hands after Homan scored three in the ninth.

It was redemption for Homan after falling to Einarson during the round-robin. She now looks to avenge her other preliminary round loss to Jones in order to repeat as Canada Cup champion.

Jones topped Homan 9-4 Friday night to earn the bye to the final.

The Jones-Homan final frees up an Olympic Trials spot for the team that finishes atop of the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) standings at the conclusion of the season.

Einarson emerges from tiebreaker

It’s been a bit of a struggle this season for Einarson without a playoff appearance to show prior to the Canada Cup. She sure picked the right time to qualify for her first with an 8-6 win over Sweeting in the tiebreaker.

It was close with the game tied 5-5 in the ninth end. Sweeting had an opportunity to blank and retain the hammer coming home, however, she hit Einarson’s counter right on the nose for a single.

It was a scary sight in the 10th when second Dana Ferguson slipped and fell during Sweeting’s first skip stone to burn the rock. Sweeting was still in position to hold Einarson to just a point, needing to hit and roll with her last to split the rings, but once against landed on the beak to set up a potential double for the win.

Einarson made no mistake to knock both of Sweeting’s stones and count three for the win.

Jacobs now preps for Grand Slam homecoming

Laycock and Jacobs were both looking at a long day at the office if they wished to make it through to the men’s final.

It was a tight battle in the first half until Laycock pulled away with a double takeout to score five in the fifth end and a 6-2 lead to deflate the reigning Olympic champs.

Jacobs tacked one on the board in the sixth, but Laycock didn’t ease up adding three in the seventh to bring out the handshakes.

Team Jacobs had been charged up right from the start of the Canada Cup with their skip making an amazing double on their last shot to defeat Mike McEwen in the opening draw. They entered the final day of the round-robin needing just a victory to reach the semifinal but came up short losing to Carruthers and Epping to fall into the tiebreaker scenario.

Jacobs now shifts his attention to the Boost National as he looks to win a Grand Slam in front of his hometown fans.