News National

CONCEPTION BAY SOUTH, N.L. — It may not have gone exactly how Team Chelsea Carey planned it, but the Canadian champions from Calgary picked up their first win of the Boost National during Thursday afternoon’s draw at CBS Arena.

Team Carey stole a point in the eighth end to edge Team Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland 6-5 and move up to a 1-1 record at the midway mark of pool play.

The reigning world champions Team Tirinzoni (2-1) held the hammer in the final frame all tied up, but fourth Alina Paetz was forced to draw for the win and slid past the target.

“We grinded it out and it feels really good to grind one out and win,” Team Carey lead Rachel Brown said. “We put together a pretty good last end to make her draw to the pin to win and see what happens.”

Brown added: “We had known that the path that she was going to throw was a little quicker, hoping that they didn’t know that because they were throwing hits and we were throwing draws the whole end.”

It was a tight back-and-forth matchup right from the start with the teams alternating singles in the first couple of ends. Tirinzoni appeared to have a grasp on the game in the fourth with Paetz drawing for three, however, struggles in the fifth led to Carey matching for a trio of her own. The clubs exchanged singles again in six and seven to set the stage for the dramatic finale.

Defending champions Team Rachel Homan of Ottawa also improved their record to 1-1 with a 9-1 rout over Japan’s Team Sayaka Yoshimura.

Homan, who has won a record 10 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling women’s titles, stole four points in the third and swiped another count of four in the fourth to put the game out of reach early. Yoshimura broke the shutout with a single in the fifth and shook hands to drop to 0-3 and miss the playoffs.

Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa took down Team Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alta., 9-3.

Team Fujisawa (2-1) are playing as a trio this week as lead Yurika Yoshida is ill and did not join them on the trip. Lead Kristie Moore has moved up to skip Team Scheidegger (1-2) this week. Scheidegger (maternity leave) is out of the lineup and Julie Devereaux, who plays for skip Erica Curtis of St. John’s, N.L., is subbing at lead.

Sweden’s Team Isabella Wrana (1-2) got into the win column with a 5-4 win over Edmonton’s Team Kelsey Rocque (0-2).

In the lone men’s match on the draw, Calgary’s Team Kevin Koe got back on track with a 9-4 win over Team Scott McDonald of Kingston, Ont.

The reigning Pinty’s Cup champion Koe (2-1) was already up by a point when he put the game away scoring four in the sixth end. Koe said it’s nice to rebound after a tough 6-1 loss Wednesday night to defending champions Team Ross Paterson of Scotland.

“We got beat down there last night,” Koe said. “We didn’t play great, they played good but that can happen out here in a hurry. A couple of missed shots here or there and you’re chasing. Yeah, 2-1, a good spot going into tomorrow.”

Team Koe will take on local favourites Team Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., in their final pool game.

“Obviously, a good start will be key,” Koe said. “If anyone is used to it, we’re used to playing them here. We played them in a Slam final here once and the Brier final here as well, so we know what to expect. They look like they’re playing well here this week and riding the support. If we can just get off to a good start and keep ’er close until the end, I think we’ll have a good chance.”

McDonald was eliminated from contention with a 0-3 record.

Boost National action continues at 4:30 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET) with broadcast coverage on Sportsnet and streaming online via Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).

Round-robin play runs through to Friday with the top eight teams overall in both divisions qualifying for the weekend playoffs.

NOTES: The Boost National is the third event and second major of the 2019-20 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season featuring 15 of the top men’s teams and 15 of the top women’s teams from around the world. Qualification is based on the WCF World Team Ranking system. … A $300,000 combined purse is on the line, split equally between both divisions, with the winners receiving $35,000 each plus berths to the season-ending Humpty’s Champions Cup in Olds, Alta. … Teams also earn points towards the Pinty’s Cup awarded to the season champions following the conclusion of the Players’ Championship in April.