News Elite 10

FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. — Calgary’s Kevin Koe qualified for the playoffs and secured a bye to the semifinals of the Syncrude Elite 10 after defeating Toronto’s John Epping during the final round-robin draw Friday night.

Koe, who went 3-1 through preliminary play, stole three consecutive ends in the first half and stayed in control during the 3-and-2 victory. Epping was eliminated at 1-3.

Although Koe, Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers, Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., and Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen all finished with identical 3-1 records, Koe and Jacobs earned the byes to the semifinals based on draw-to-the-button shootout totals. Gushue meets McEwen in the quarterfinals and Carruthers awaits the winner of a tiebreaker between Glenn Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont., and Niklas Edin of Sweden.

“You come here and you want to get to the playoffs and then see what happens from there but we managed to slip into the semifinals so that’s big,” Team Koe second Brent Laing said. “It’s a bit of a different format, lots of fun to play but so far so good.”

The Syncrude Elite 10 uses match play rules. Teams compete to win the most ends by either scoring two or more points (with hammer) or steal at least one point (without hammer). If an end is blanked, the hammer switches and points do not carry over. Winning scores indicate how many ends a team was up by and if there were any ends not played (e.g. a team that won 3-and-2 finished the game 3-up after six ends). 

“It’s basically skins with no carryovers, which is just like eight mini-games every game,” Laing explained. “Lots of rocks in play, lots of different shots and lots of excitement. I think it’s been great.”

Elsewhere, Edin scored four ends to get a 4-and-3 victory over Howard to set up the rematch in Saturday morning’s tiebreaker and Carruthers (3-1) claimed a 3-and-1 victory over Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock (0-4).