News National

CONCEPTION BAY SOUTH, N.L. — Calgary’s Team Kevin Koe held off Team Glenn Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont., 5-4 in an extra end to get into the win column at the Boost National.

Although Koe controlled most of Thursday’s round-robin match, Howard was able to erase a three-point deficit with a deuce in seven followed by a steal.

Koe’s draw in eight came up light, but he recovered from his gaffe with a hit for the winning single in OT.

“It’s why you play the game, right, to be in those moments,” Team Koe third B.J. Neufeld said. “Have to be precise to win games and it’s a lot of fun.”

Koe’s crew, who shot 89 percent as a group, improved to a 1-1 record after losing to Winnipeg’s Team Jason Gunnlaugson in their opener Wednesday. Team Howard slid to 1-2.

“These short round-robins, you can’t afford to get down two losses early. It makes it pretty grindy, pretty tough,” Neufeld said. “We had a really good effort. We dominated pretty much the whole game, maybe just missed a couple chances to really put them away, but it was a good rebound from last night.”

Howard fell into trouble early facing four on his last in the opening end and saved it with a double takeout to limit the damage to just a single steal. A double from Howard again blanked the second end.

Koe came off his own to eliminate Howard’s shot rock and sit two under cover in three forcing Howard to attempt yet another double, however, it was too tight and he crashed on his own guard to give up a pair and trail 3-0.

Kevin Koe makes a difficult shot look easy, setting up a steal in the third end. pic.twitter.com/iUbk9LCtgv

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 13, 2018

Neufeld said it was big for the team to put pressure on Team Howard and take control in the first half despite not holding the hammer.

“I think as a tendency this year, our starts have been maybe a little bit lacklustre,” Neufeld said. “We’ve been having to come from behind in a lot of games. So pre-game meeting, we just wanted to make sure we’re ready to go right from the get-go and we were. We played really well, made lots of shots and put a lot of pressure on Glenn.”

Howard had to make, surprise, his fourth consecutive last-rock double in the fourth to blank again. A hit for one in the fifth put Howard on the board and finally handed the hammer over to Koe, who settled for a single in six to reestablish the three-point gap.

The door was open in the seventh for Howard to hit and roll in for a deuce and close within one, and he stole in the eighth when Koe came up light on his draw and sweepers Ben Hebert and Colton Flasch were unable to pull the string.

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Elsewhere in Draw 7, Gunnlaugson scored two in the first and three in the third during a 7-5 victory over Toronto’s Team John Epping. Gunnlaugson improved to a 2-1 record while Epping, who won the Canadian Beef Masters title this season, is even at 1-1.

Team Braden Calvert picked up their first win in the series defeating Team Reid Carruthers 6-2 in an all-Winnipeg battle. Tied 1-1 after two, Calvert swiped singles in three consecutive ends to pull away and added a deuce in the seventh for insurance. The 2015 world junior champion Calvert shot a perfect 100 percent.

Fourth Mike McEwen is skipping Team Carruthers again this week. Both teams now have identical 1-2 records.

Team Yannick Schwaller held off Team Peter de Cruz 6-5 in an extra end during a matchup of Swiss squads. De Cruz (0-2) stole singles in the sixth, seventh and eighth ends, but Schwaller (2-1) rebounded with a hit against three in the extra.

Defending champions Team Bruce Mouat from Scotland crushed compatriots Team Ross Paterson 7-1 in only five ends. Mouat (2-0) threw 100 percent scoring three in the second, two in the fourth and a steal of a couple in the fifth as Paterson slipped to a 1-2 record.

The Boost National is the fourth event and second major of the 2018-19 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season featuring 15 of the top men’s teams and 15 of the top women’s teams from around the world.

Both divisions are split into three pools for round-robin play with the top eight teams overall qualifying for Saturday’s quarterfinals. The semis are also set for Saturday with both finals taking place Sunday.

Round-robin play continues at 4:30 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET) with broadcast coverage on Sportsnet and streaming online at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).

NOTES: Winners of the Boost National collect $30,000 of the $250,000 total purse plus berths to the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season finale Humpty’s Champions Cup. … Points are also on the line for the Pinty’s Cup, which is awarded to the overall season champions following the conclusion of the Players’ Championship in April. … All games are played to eight ends with 33 minutes of thinking time plus two, 90-second timeouts. The five-rock rule is also in effect.