News Tour Challenge

PARADISE, N.L. — Olympic champion Jennifer Jones is still in the Tour Challenge playoff picture after a nervous last shot to score two in the eighth end and lift her Winnipeg team to a 7-6 victory over Calgary’s Chelsea Carey on Friday.

Both teams hold 2-2 records in the season-opening Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event and could play tiebreakers or even advance to the quarterfinals outright pending the results of other matches on the draw schedule. 

“We have at least one more game whether it’s tiebreaker or not,” Jones said. “We managed to win two games when we had to and we’ll see what happens from here.”

Carey looked to make a freeze and limit Jones to one and force an extra end, but her shot rolled heavy and Jones had a chance to draw for two and the win instead. The crowd roared as the rock slid down the ice, but Team Carey’s third Amy Nixon went to work attempting to brush Jones’s stone out. The crowd was temporarily silent and began to cheer again when the stone came to a halt to count.

“I thought it was good and then it kept sliding,” Jones said. “It was nerve-racking but it stopped just in time and was good enough for the win.” 

Carey opened with the hammer but her last rock sailed through the house and she gave up two. With shot rock already in play during the second end, Carey attempted an angle raise for a multiple score but didn’t get the right angle and had to settle for just a single point.

Jones hit and rolled out to count only one in the third end but regained the two-point advantage at 3-1. Carey faced at least three Jones counters in four and was forced to draw full eight for one. Jones had a shot to tap for two points but rolled just wide and Carey stole a point in five to tie it 3-3. Carey tried to bury her last stone in six but Jones was able to catch a piece of it and take two to regain the lead. Carey capitalized on a Jones miss and bounced back to score three in the seventh and go ahead 6-5.

Meanwhile, Tracy Fleury of Sudbury, Ont., broke a tie game with a three-ender in the fourth and held on to defeat Scotland’s Eve Muirhead 9-5. Both rinks ended the round-robin at 2-2 as well. 

Winnipeg’s Kristy McDonald fended off a late charge from Sherry Middaugh of Coldwater, Ont., to win 6-5. Middaugh (3-1) had already qualified while McDonald (1-2) plays Russia’s Anna Sidorova (0-3) in Friday’s evening draw.

In men’s action, Olympic gold medallist Brad Jacobs, of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., powered past Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock 7-2 in five ends. Jacobs scored a deuce in the first, grabbed three in the third and closed out with another two points in the fifth. Jacobs advances to the playoffs with a 3-1 record while Laycock has been eliminated at 1-3. 

Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher scored two in the seventh during a 5-3 victory over Glenn Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont. Both teams move on with 3-1 records.

NOTES: The Tour Challenge is the first of two new tournaments on the expanded seven-event 2015-16 Pinty’s GSOC season and features 30 men’s and 30 women’s teams split into two tiers. … Winners of the Tier 1 divisions also receive berths to the second new Pinty’s GSOC event, the season-ending Champions Cup. … Tier 2 champions earn byes to the next Grand Slam, the Masters, running Oct. 27 to Nov. 1 in Truro, N.S.