News Champions Cup

SASKATOON — The Bottcher express keeps rolling through the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling.

Brendan Bottcher and his Edmonton-based team picked up their second straight round-robin victory in the Humpty’s Champions Cup although they needed an extra end to solve Team Tyler Tardi 6-5 Thursday morning at Merlis Belsher Place.

Bottcher has won the past two titles in the series claiming the Meridian Canadian Open, his first career GSOC trophy, in January followed by the Players’ Championship earlier this month.

Tardi, the double defending world junior champion from Langley, B.C., slipped to a 0-2 record.

Humpty’s Champions Cup: Tickets | Live Scores/Results | Standings | Draw Schedule | Braodcast Schedule

Elsewhere in Draw 6, Japan’s Team Yuta Matsumura scored three in the eighth end to slide by Scotland’s Ross Paterson 8-7. Matsumura now sports a 1-2 record while Paterson is at 0-2.

Team Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alta., doubled up on reigning world champions Team Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland 6-3 while Team Jamie Sinclair of the United States also beat Sweden’s Team Isabella Wrana by an identical score.

Both Scheidegger and Tirinzoni are at 1-1 records, Sinclair improved to a 2-1 while Wrana dropped to 0-3.

Russia’s Team Alina Kovaleva crushed compatriots Team Vlada Rumyanceva 12-1 in only four ends. Kovaleva (2-1) hammered home five-enders in the first and fourth ends while also stealing two in the second. The world junior champion Rumyanceva, who is making her GSOC debut, fell to a 0-3 record.

The action resumes at 2 p.m. ET / Noon CST. Watch on Sportsnet or online via Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).

Round-robin play runs through to Friday with the top eight teams overall in both divisions advancing playoffs. The quarterfinals and semifinals are set for Saturday with both finals scheduled Sunday.

Notes: The Humpty’s Champions Cup is the seventh and final Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event of the season featuring 15 men’s teams and 15 women’s teams who won high-profile events over the course of the season to qualify. … The total purse is $250,000, split evenly between the men’s and women’s divisions, with the winners earning $40,000. … A new rule is being tested at the event where teams cannot perform tick shots on rocks sitting on the centre line during the eighth and extra ends.