News National

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. — Toronto’s John Epping bounced back and held on for a 7-6 win over John Morris of Vernon, B.C., during Draw 4 Wednesday of the Boost National. 

It was the first game in the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling major tournament for both teams.

Down 4-2 early, Epping shook it off and rallied with a deuce in the fourth to tie it and rolled away stealing two points in the fifth and one in the sixth for a three-point advantage. Morris, who skips while throwing third stones with Jim Cotter at fourth, was limited to a single in seven and Epping conceded a point in eight.

Epping admitted his team struggled a bit, but he was pleased to pick up a victory to start.

“We played a couple good first ends, played two poor ends and actually got a fortunate deuce to get it tied,” Epping said. “A couple uncharacteristic misses from Jimmy in the middle game there gave us a steal of two and handed us that one. We picked up pretty good from there and were able to run it through. We weren’t our best but we’ll definitely take that.” 

Elsewhere, Edmonton’s Charley Thomas defeated Niklas Edin of Sweden 7-4 and reigning world champion Kevin Koe of Calgary edged Peter de Cruz of Switzerland 5-4 in an extra end.

It was a good day at the office for Ottawa’s Rachel Homan. The defending women’s champion climbed to a 2-0 record with an 8-2 victory over Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay, Ont. Anna Sidorova of Russia staved off a late charge from Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland to win 6-5.

NOTES: The Boost National is the third event and second major of the 2016-17 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season. … TV coverage begins Thursday at Noon ET on Sportsnet. … Round-robin action continues Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET. … The Boost National runs through to Sunday afternoon at the Essar Centre.