News Tour Challenge

PARADISE, N.L. — Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers finished at the top of the Tour Challenge round-robin standings.

Carruthers completed an undefeated 4-0 run through pool play after beating David Murdoch of Scotland 6-5 Friday at the Paradise Double Ice Complex to secure the No. 1 seed for the quarterfinals.

“It feels great, 4-0 at a Slam,” Team Carruthers lead Colin Hodgson said. “Reid has been playing great and we’re just kind of riding the rollercoaster with him.” 

Team Carruthers already qualified for the playoffs and Hodgson said that was huge for them entering their final round-robin match as a tune-up for the playoffs.

“It made this game really easy to play for us. We were loose and we’re definitely a team that plays better when we’re loose,” Hodgson said. “We played a really good game again. It feels really good to go into the quarterfinals knowing we’ve already made our goal this weekend and we can build on it and everything’s gravy from here.” 

Carruthers led 4-1 at the halftime break with a deuce in the first, a single in the third and a steal in the fourth. Murdoch earned a deuce in the fifth but Carruthers took two back in the sixth to maintain the three-point advantage. The Olympic silver medallist Murdoch got one in the seventh and Carruthers handed his opponent a point in the eighth to hang on.

Murdoch missed the playoffs with a 1-3 record.

Elsewhere, Calgary’s Kevin Koe edged Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen 5-4 to qualify for the playoffs. Both teams finished the round robin at 3-1. 

Koe scored all of his points in the first half taking two in the first, drawing to the button for another deuce in the third and stealing one in the fourth when McEwen’s final shot came up short of the button. McEwen, who was forced to a single in the second, clawed back making a double takeout for two points in the fifth and stole one in the sixth when Koe missed a double attempt to blank.

Koe got his blank in seven to retain the hammer coming home and threw a pistol with his last redirecting off his own to eliminate McEwen’s shot rock and to make them all disappear to secure the victory.

Home-province hero Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., had the crowd in a frenzy following his 9-5 win over Sweden’s Niklas Edin to qualify at 3-1. The reigning world champion Edin is done at 1-3. 

American John Shuster (2-2) earned a 6-3 victory over Switzerland’s Peter de Cruz (1-3) to advance.

No tiebreakers are required on the men’s side with the quarterfinals set (Saturday, 11:30 a.m. NT). Carruthers faces Shuster, Koe takes on Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher, Gushue goes up against Glenn Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont., and McEwen meets Brad Jacobs, of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. 

In the women’s division, Julie Hastings of Thornhill, Ont., ended on a high note with a 7-4 win over Switzerland’s Binia Feltscher. Both teams were eliminated with 1-3 records. The women’s division has one more round-robin draw to go at 7:30 p.m. NT featuring Ottawa’s Rachel Homan (3-0) vs. Edmonton’s Val Sweeting (1-2) on Sportsnet ONE.

NOTES: The Tour Challenge is the first of two new tournaments on the expanded seven-event 2015-16 Pinty’s GSOC season and features 30 men’s and 30 women’s teams split into two tiers. … Winners of the Tier 1 divisions also receive berths to the second new Pinty’s GSOC event, the season-ending Champions Cup. … Tier 2 champions earn byes to the next Grand Slam, the Masters, running Oct. 27 to Nov. 1 in Truro, N.S.