News Champions Cup

CALGARY — Hometown hero Kevin Koe beat the clock to outduel American John Shuster 6-5 during Draw 8 action at the Humpty’s Champions Cup.

Both teams now hold 2-1 records with one game to go each in the round-robin of the season-ending Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event.

Koe trailed by one with the hammer coming home in eight and drew to the button with his first skip stone with only 51 seconds left on the clock. Shuster kissed off one of his own stones with his last and both teams took a look to determine if Koe already sat two.

The clock started ticking and Koe quickly threw his final rock away as it was a deuce for the Calgary skip.

“We didn’t manage the clock very well but we’ve gotten accustomed to playing speed ends,” Team Koe third Marc Kennedy said. “We’ve done it a lot of times in the past and sometimes it’s our best ends when we just bare down and play it quick.”

It looked like a routine blank attempt to start for Koe until his last hit and stuck for a single. Shuster sat shot stone prior to his last in the second and looked to bump off a counter and in for two, but was just short for only one to bring things level at 1-1.

Koe got the blank he was looking for in the third and hit and stuck for one in the fourth. Shuster split the rings in five to set up a deuce to go up 3-2.

Shuster had to do some spring cleaning with his last in six, facing four and getting a triple takeout to limit the damage. Koe eased in his last for a deuce to retake the lead 4-3.

With Shuster sitting five in the seventh, Koe was now the one in trouble but glanced off one of his own stones in the house and rolled buried to get second shot.

Shuster couldn’t clip it out to score a handful but put his last in to score two and pull back ahead 5-4 with one end to go.

“It was a good battle,” Kennedy said. “We got into trouble a few ends. Kevin made some good ones to bail us out and we got a little fortunate there in seven to not give up a big end. They’re a great team. They’ve come a long way and we just hung in there and pulled it out.”

Team Koe lead Ben Hebert is back in the lineup this week after missing the previous two events due to a knee injury. Korey Dropkin fills in at second for Team Shuster’s Matt Hamilton, who is off representing Team USA at the world mixed doubles championship.

Elsewhere, John Morris of Vernon, B.C., moved up to a 2-1 record with a 6-3 win over Winnipeg’s Team Carruthers, skipped by Braeden Moskowy.

Moskowy (1-1) is calling the shots this week with Reid Carruthers away at the world mixed doubles championship. Derek Samagalski and Colin Hodgson have also moved up a spot in the lineup with alternate/adviser Craig Savill in at lead.

Rogers Grand Slam Cup champ Niklas Edin of Sweden outlasted Toronto’s John Epping 6-5 in an extra end. It looked like Edin (1-1) had sealed the win in the eighth up by two, and Epping was preparing for handshakes, but his rock picked and Epping capitalized to hit and stay in for the tying deuce.

Epping couldn’t complete the comeback in the extra though and dropped to a 1-2 record.

Switzerland’s Alina Paetz is the first to qualify for the playoffs after stealing three in an extra end to top Allison Flaxey of Caledon, Ont., 6-3. Paetz punches her ticket with a 3-0 record and another game to follow while Flaxey falls to 1-2.

American Jamie Sinclair was the first to wrap up the round-robin and will play for another day. After a 0-2 start, Sinclair needed to win both of her games Thursday and it was mission accomplished. After beating China’s Bingyu Wang in the morning draw, Sinclair downed Jacqueline Harrison of Mississauga, Ont., 7-1 in just five ends.

“That was definitely our goal going into today, obviously was to get the two Ws, so we’re pleased with that,” Sinclair said. “Especially this morning’s game, it was a grind, but we knew that going in we were ready for a battle. I’m really proud of the girls for just never giving up.”

After settling for a single in the second, it was no hammer, no problem for Sinclair as she stole four in the third end when Harrison’s last rolled heavy past the pile of counters and swiped two more in the fourth when Harrison wrecked on a guard. Harrison (1-2) was forced to draw for a single in the fifth to break the shutout and shook hands.

“We had an opportunity for two in the first end, just wrong side of the inch, but made up for it in the next couple ends,” Sinclair said. “It’s actually our first time playing the five-rock rule, so we found that really interesting and definitely a lot more rocks in play so we’re playing a little bit more aggressive game than we usually do but it’s kind of fun. We’re enjoying it so far.”

The U.S. national champion will either move on straight through to the quarterfinals or at least play a tiebreaker pending the results of the remaining round robin draws.

Round-robin action continues through to Friday at WinSport Arena with the top eight men’s and women’s teams qualifying for the weekend playoffs.