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Edin, Carruthers & Koe qualify at Canadian Open

CAMROSE, Alta. — The gloves were off and Niklas Edin was prepared to shake hands with Bruce Mouat at the Meridian Canadian Open.

Edin had accepted defeat as Mouat trailed by two points in the C-qualifiers Friday but held the hammer in the final frame and a shot for the win. The Swedish skip earned a second lifeline though as Mouat’s shooter slid out and it was just a deuce to tie it.

“I thought it was an easy shot and he made it already so I looked away,” Edin said. “I took my gloves off and when it rolled off, I just couldn’t believe it.”

With the gloves strqpped back on, Edin made the open hit with his last in the extra end to defeat the Scottish squad 8-7 and advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals.

The reigning BOOST National champion Mouat opened with the hammer and scored a deuce in the first. Edin responded by drawing for two in the second to tie it.

Team Mouat struggled with the runbacks in the third leading to disaster. Edin piled three in the house and stole the end when Mouat missed the trio completely on another failed raise.

Mouat tapped for two points in the fourth to close the gap 5-4 and put the pressure on Edin in the fifth end sitting five counters. The three-time Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling champion Edin delivered the clutch draw to avoid the nightmare.

The teams alternated singles in six and seven to set up the thrilling finale and Edin credits second Rasmus Wrana for holding the line.

“I had good draw weight all game and the ice was staying really well like there was no sliding path or anything,” Edin said. “I was really sure to make that last draw but when they put that last one a little bit too far so I could roll almost anywhere I just felt like the hit was easier because otherwise, I would have had to draw on the other turn, which I hadn’t played for more than half the game.

“Luckily, Rasmus took that earlier. It was a pretty soft release. I didn’t want to pop it but he held it well for me.”

Lead Christoffer Sundgren was feeling under the weather and held the broom during skip stones with third Oskar Eriksson working extra hard sweeping Edin’s rocks.

“As Oskar explained it himself, he’s feeling like a clown out there,” Edin said with a laugh. “It looks pretty good actually. He’s got a lot of pressure on the brush and with Christoffer not feeling well we just didn’t want to risk anything this close to the Olympics. We thought it was the right call to put him in the house.

“We have two good sweepers in Rasmus and Oskar so it’s working pretty well so far. We’ve got some communication to maybe work on for the playoffs but we’re really happy we won these last two games. It’s been a grind and we haven’t played super well but we’ve played well enough to stick in the games and give ourselves a chance at least.”

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Meanwhile, with Edmonton Eskimos place kicker Sean Whyte in the house, that might explain the football score in Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers’s 9-3 victory over American John Shuster and advance.

It was clobberin’ time for Carruthers, who stole two in the first and pulled away with an unconverted touchdown in the third when Shuster’s last sailed clear through the house and allowed him to draw for six.

Carruthers added the extra point in the fourth on a steal. Shuster, who scored a deuce earlier in the second, settled for a single in the fifth and quickly shook hands to call it a night early.

“We knew after practice that whoever managed rocks down the sheet the best was going to be in good shape,” Team Carruthers lead Colin Hodgson said. “The ice was a little different than it’s been probably because there are a lot more people in the building right now. It was a little more difficult right out of practice. We threw our draw not even close and we thought we threw them pretty well.

“Definitely, that was the biggest thing is we just knew we had to be patient out of the first end. We came out there in the first end, put a lot of pressure on them to make some hard shots and luckily we got them a few misses.”

Hodgson added he’s very relieved to get into the playoffs and said they’ve been a Jekyll and Hyde team.

“When we’re good, we’ve been really good and when we’ve been bad, we’ve been really bad,” he said. “It’s been a long season and with the letdown of the men’s Olympic Trials and then the mixed doubles, we worked really hard for four years to go into those events, and to be close in both of them and miss out in ways we couldn’t have prepared for was frustrating and exhausting.

“Mentally, it’s been a long grind but it makes qualifying even that much more better than just coming out here and playing well.”

Kevin Koe’s Calgary crew made it all the way through the C event to qualify and closed things off with a wild 7-4 victory over Toronto’s John Epping.

Koe built a 3-0 lead with a deuce in the first followed by a steal in the second. Epping settled for a single in three and then pulled ahead 4-3 as Koe struggled to give up two in the fourth and one in the fifth.

That’s when Koe found his groove again to flip the script and match Epping’s run with a single in six, a steal of two in seven and one more swipe in eight.

Team Koe second Brent Laing said that’s why you can never count Koe out.

“He never goes off for too long,” Laing said. “It was just a wild game. Lots of good shots but some uncharacteristic misses on both sides. I always have faith in Kevin regardless of how he’s playing or how he’s played. He’ll always be there when it really matters.”

Koe, who will represent Canada at the upcoming Winter Olympics, started his home-province tournament with a 0-2 record to quickly slip to the C-side but won three straight to punch his playoff ticket.

“We had a bit of a slow start. I’m not sure we were super ready to play this week but we started to play a little bit better,” Laing said. “We’re still not firing on all cylinders but it’s nice to get competitive games in, get the competitive juices flowing, play against some good teams and see where we’re at and know what we have to work on. Clearly, we have a little bit of work to do for sure but we’re in the playoffs so we’ll see if we can make a run.”

Top-seed Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., plays Carruthers in the quarterfinals, Peter de Cruz of Switzerland collides with Edmonton’s Team Brendan Bottcher (with super spare skip Steve Laycock), Winnipeg’s Jason Gunnlaugson clashes with Koe and Edin meets Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen.

Watch the men’s quarterfinals Saturday at 4 p.m. ET on Sportsnet ONE and online at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) or gsoc.yaretv.com (international).

The Meridian Canadian Open features a triple knockout preliminary format where teams had to win three games before they lost three in order to qualify for the weekend playoffs.

Ottawa’s Rachel Homan took the top seed on the women’s side and faces EunJung Kim of South Korea in their quarterfinals. Calgary’s Chelsea Carey goes up against Edmonton’s Laura Crocker, Allison Flaxey of Caledon, Ont., takes on Michelle Englot’s Winnipeg team and Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones plays Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland.

Watch the men’s quarterfinals Saturday at Noon ET (Sportsnet ONE).

NOTES: Winners of the Meridian Canadian Open earn berths to the season-ending Humpty’s Champions Cup running April 24-29 at Calgary’s WinSport Arena. … Points are also up for grabs for the Bonus Cup, awarded to the overall season champions.

Nov. 5-10, 2024 Silent Ice Center Nisku, AB