News Champions Cup

CALGARY — Jennifer Jones just had to hit the paint with her last shot of the extra end against Allison Flaxey during Draw 12 Friday at the Humpty’s Championship.

Flaxey’s last rolled through the rings leaving Jones a wide-open house. The defending champ from Winnipeg not only made the draw, but she landed right on the button.

The 7-6 victory secured Jones’ spot in the playoffs as she finished the round-robin with a 3-1 record.

“You want to make sure you sweep your rock to the top of the button,” Team Jones lead Dawn McEwen said. “It’s great when your skip can hit the top button, maybe with a little bit of the sweeping, and she had her draw weight all game so it was a nice result.”

Jones, fresh off winning the Players’ Championship, opened with the hammer and bounced off a counter for two in the first. She was hoping it would be three, but Flaxey’s stone jammed and stuck around for third shot following a measurement. Flaxey, of Caledon, Ont., had an open draw for three in the second end, but came up well short of the house to only count the deuce that tied it 2-2.

A single in three handed the lead back to Jones, who avoided the guard and hit a double but spun back up a little too far. Flaxey faced two counters on her last in four and hit and stuck for one to knot it up again at 3-3.

Jones got a single in five but nosed her last in six and Flaxey capitalized to get two for the 5-4 lead.

Flaxey fired at the pile in seven, but when the dust settled Jones was sitting shot and had an open path to draw in for a deuce to pull back ahead 6-5.

With Flaxey making a raise on her first skip stone to promote her own for shot, Jones couldn’t get through the port in eight kissing off a guard and rolling through the house untouched. That gave Flaxey a shot for two and the win, but her shooter hit off the other goalpost guard, and she only counted the one to force the extra where Jones prevailed.

“It was a battle out there, definitely back and forth, a tough game and luckily we had a draw for the win,” McEwen said. “Jenn had great draw weight all game so it worked out well for us.”

Flaxey’s season is over as she fell to a 1-3 record and the WFG Masters champ was eliminated from playoff contention.

Elsewhere, Winnipeg’s Kerri Einarson emerged with a 6-5 victory over Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alta., in a must-win game. The Boost National champ Einarson (2-2) took two in the seventh and stole one in eight to reach the the tiebreakers. Scheidegger, who captured the Meridian Canadian Open, is done for the year with a 1-3 record.

Jacqueline Harrison (2-2) of Mississauga, Ont., qualified defeating Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni 6-4. Tirinzoni already advanced and finished round robin with a 3-1 record and the two teams will square off again in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

In men’s play, Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen (3-1) is through to the playoffs with an 8-3 win over Steve Laycock of Saskatoon.

It was a solid team game for the McEwen crew finishing at 93 percent with third B.J. Neufeld scoring a perfect 100. McEwen got off to a hot first half with a deuce in the first, a steal in the second and a three-count in four while limiting Laycock to just one in the third. Laycock took two in the fifth, but McEwen matched with a pair in six.

“We played really good early and got a jump on them,” said McEwen, who finished runner-up at the Players’ Championship two weeks ago. “We did get another break a little bit later in the first half to grab a big lead and kind of stepped on the gas from there.

“We’re playing really well, as well as we were probably playing in the Players’ a couple weeks ago. If we keep doing that we’ll have a good chance to go far.”

Laycock ends round robin at 2-2 and now plays the waiting game as he could move straight through to the quarterfinals or into a tiebreaker.

John Morris (3-1) of Vernon, B.C., also qualified with a 6-3 set over Grant Hardie (0-4) of Scotland.

Morris fell flat to start the tournament falling 7-2 against Brad Jacobs, but has rebounded big time winning three straight to advance.

“That was really good,” Team Morris fourth Jim Cotter said. “We came out and struggled in the first game there but we bounced back and seem to be getting better with each game, so we’re heading in the right direction.”

Catlin Schneider is subbing at second and Tyrel Griffith has shifted over to lead with Rick Sawatsky out due to injury.

The top eight men’s and women’s teams qualify for Saturday’s quarterfinals with the season wrapping up Sunday at WinSport Arena.