News Masters

TRURO, N.S. — Jim Cotter of Vernon, B.C., hit and stuck around for the winning point in the extra end to edge Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher 5-4 during Draw 7 of the Masters on Thursday.

Cotter, who won the Tour Challenge Tier 2 last month to earn a promotion into the Masters, climbed to a 2-0 record in pool play. Bottcher is now level at 1-1.

It was Bottcher who got on the board first stealing a single point in the opening frame. Bottcher also pulled off a wicked raise triple in the second although Cotter still had a chance to score a deuce, however, his shooter rolled and he only got one. 

Bottcher was held to a point in three and Cotter made a double to score two in the fourth to take a 3-2 lead. The teams alternated singles through the fifth and sixth ends. Bottcher blanked the seventh but couldn’t only count one in the eighth to force the extra end.

Elsewhere in Draw 7, Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen became the first to qualify for the playoffs with an 8-2 victory over Calgary’s Pat Simmons. McEwen moved up to a 3-0 record with one round-robin game remaining. Simmons fell to a 1-2 record and needs to win his final round robin game for a chance to stay in the mix. 

“It feels pretty good,” Team McEwen second Matt Wozniak said. “That was our best game by far so we’re slowly kind of improving game by game and looking forward to keeping it going.” 

McEwen made a runback and stuck to score four in the sixth that brought out the handshakes. Although not as thrilling as their shot of the year from the Masters final last year, Wozniak was happy with the result. 

“They were just kind of going all out for a steal there and it was either going to be probably one for them or a bunch for us type of thing,” Wozniak said. “Not quite as crazy as last year but we’ll take it anyway for sure.”

Tour Challenge winner Kevin Koe made a clutch shot with his last rock in the eighth end to score a deuce and lift his Calgary team to a 7-6 win over Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock. Koe climbed to a 2-0 record while Layock is down to 0-2.

Reigning world champion Niklas Edin of Sweden made a delicate draw to get the single in the eighth end to win 5-4 versus Glenn Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont. Edin improved to 2-0 and Howard fell to 1-2.

Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones (2-0) rolled out to a 9-2 win over Alina Paetz (0-2) of Switzerland in the lone women’s game on the draw. Jones broke a 2-2 tie with a deuce in five and slid away stealing three in six and two in seven.

The Masters is the second stop on the seven-event 2015-16 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling schedule and runs through to Sunday at the Rath Eastlink Community Centre.