News Tour Challenge

CRANBROOK, B.C. — Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., reached the tiebreaker stage in the Tour Challenge with a thrilling 6-4 victory Friday night over Calgary’s Kevin Koe.

The reigning Olympic gold medallist Jacobs was on fire throwing a perfect 100 percent to wrap up pool play with a 2-2 record and stay in contention.

Koe entered the event as the defending champion and missed the cut at 1-3.

Jacobs secured his two-point lead drawing for a deuce in the seventh end and putting pressure on Koe in the eighth. Koe cleared most of the house with an amazing quad takeout on his first skip stone, however, Jacobs fired an entertaining double of his own to run the reigning world champion out of rocks. 

“I think it was obviously great to first, get the win there, and then second, to win on an exciting shot,” Team Jacobs second E.J. Harnden said, “and a big shot for us to hopefully get a little bit of the momentum going in our favour moving into the tiebreaker and then hopefully into the playoffs from there.” 

Both teams entered with matching records and knew the victor would remain in contention and the loser would be heading home. It was a tight back-and-forth affair with the teams trading deuces in the first couples ends. An around-the-house triple takeout by Team Jacobs third Ryan Fry set the table for Koe to blank the third.

Koe was forced to draw to the four-foot circle for a single in the fourth. Jacobs scored a pair in the fifth end and Koe was forced to draw for just one again in six to tie it 4-4.

Harnden believes it’ll just take patience to pull off the win in Saturday’s morning tiebreaker at 8 a.m. MT against Niklas Edin of Sweden. Team Jacobs look to avenge a disappointing extra-end loss to Edin in the WFG Masters final two weeks ago.

“I think a lot of the teams and ourselves included are throwing well,” Harnden said. “The ice is tough, the rocks are tough, so it’s just knowing that you’re going to get some misses out there, trying to stay patient and just grind through games and get the win regardless of the performance.” 

Edin (2-2) scored a deuce in six and stole a point in seven to complete a 5-4 comeback against Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher (1-3) and secure his spot in the tiebreaker.

American John Shuster (2-2) plays Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud (2-2) in the second men’s tiebreaker. 

Meanwhile, Kyle Smith of Scotland pushed past Toronto’s John Epping 6-4 and into the quarterfinals. Smith (3-1) scored a deuce in the first, stole back-to-back singles in two and three, held Epping to one in the fourth and counted another pair in five. Epping (1-3) made an amazing double to score a deuce in the sixth and stole one in the seventh but it was too little, too late as he ran out of options without the hammer coming home. 

Smith will face Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers, Team Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., meets Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock in the men’s quarterfinals (Saturday 4 p.m. MT) with John Morris of Vernon, B.C., and Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen awaiting the tiebreaker winners. 

Two women’s tiebreaker matches were also underway Friday night. Anna Hasselborg of Sweden topped Japan’s Ayumi Ogasawara 6-2 and Michelle Englot and her Winnipeg-based team swiped a 7-2 victory from Calgary’s Chelsea Carey.

Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque and defending champion Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland will meet in the third women’s tiebreaker Saturday morning. 

Allison Flaxey of Caledon, Ont., and Ottawa’s Rachel Homan are the top women’s seeds with 4-0 records. Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones (3-1) will also face a tiebreaker winner. Edmonton’s Val Sweeting (3-1) and Tracy Fleury (2-2) of Sudbury, Ont., is the only women’s quarterfinal match set so far (Saturday Noon MT).

NOTES: The Tour Challenge is the second of seven events on the 2016-17 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling schedule. … The Tour Challenge runs through to Sunday at Western Financial Place (all Tier 1 games and Tier 2 finals) and Memorial Arena (Tier 2 games from round-robin play to semifinals).