News National

NORTH BAY, Ont. — Satsuki Fujisawa and her Japanese team will enter the Boost National playoffs with their unblemished record intact after defeating Kerri Einarson’s Canadian club 7-6 Friday at Memorial Gardens.

Fujisawa secured the No. 1 seed at 4-0 and a superior draw-to-the-button shootout total over Switzerland’s Team Tirinzoni, who also went undefeated in the preliminary round but will get the No. 2 spot.

Team Fujisawa took two points in the opening end and stole a pair in the second to make it 4-0 as Einarson misfired her last.

Einarson, from Gimli Man., regrouped and mirrored the linescore as she counted a couple of points in three then swiped a pair in four to tie it up when Fujisawa wrecked her last shot.

Fujisawa missed again in the sixth to give up two more points, but she pulled off a wicked double raise takeout with her last in the seventh to knot it back up at 6-6, then stole one in the eighth for the win.

Einarson (3-1) is also through to the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, Canada’s Rachel Homan had four seconds left on the clock when she scored the walk-off deuce in the extra end to edge South Korea’s Team Kim 8-6. Homan, from Ottawa, is through at 3-1 while skip Eun-Jung Kim’s squad was eliminated at 1-3.

Team McCarville from Thunder Bay ended things on a high note with a 7-2 win over Toronto’s Team Duncan in an all-Ontario clash. Skips Krista McCarville (1-3) and Hollie Duncan (0-4) were both already eliminated from contention.

Canada’s Team Jones topped Team Wranå from Sweden 9-4. Both skips of Jennifer Jones and Isabella Wranå remain in the mix for now at 2-2 and tiebreakers are still to be determined.

UP NEXT

The Boost National continues at 8 p.m. ET with broadcast coverage airing exclusively online via SN NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).

Round-robin play runs through to Friday as teams play four games against teams outside of their pool. The top eight overall, regardless of pools, advance to Saturday afternoon’s quarterfinals. The semifinals are set for Saturday evening and both finals are on tap for Sunday.

NOTES

The Boost National is the first of six events on the 2022-23 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling calendar and features 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world. … A combined $300,000 purse, split equally between the men’s and women’s divisions, is on the line. The winning teams receive $35,000 and invitations to the season-ending Kioti Tractor Champions Cup. … Points are also up for grabs in the race for the Pinty’s Cup, which is awarded to the 2022-23 season champions with a $75,000 bonus for the winning teams.