News National

FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. — Edmonton’s Kevin Martin is off to the Syncrude National playoffs following a 6-4 victory over Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton during Draw 9 action Friday evening. 

The 17-time Grand Slam champion Martin wrapped up his round-robin schedule with a 4-1 record to qualify while the last year’s winner Stoughton saw his title defence come to an end as he missed the playoffs at 2-3.

Stoughton went ahead in the second thanks to an incredible angle raise to score three and led 4-2 at the fourth-end break, but it was all Martin in the second half with a deuce in the fifth to tie it followed by back-to-back single steals in six and seven. Stoughton held the hammer coming home but ran out of rocks before he could throw his final shot.

Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson is also moving onto the quarterfinals with a 4-1 record after ousting Olympic gold medallist Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., 8-1 in only three ends. Eriksson scored three in the first, forced Jacobs (2-3) to a single in the second, and counted a whopping five in the third.

Switzerland’s Sven Michel finished pool play with an unblemished 5-0 record scoring two in the seventh and stealing one in the eighth to win 6-5 over Halifax’s Mark Dacey (2-3).

South Korea’s Soo-Hyuk Kim clipped Sweden’s Niklas Edin 6-4. Kim (2-2) has one more round-robin game to go Saturday morning against Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., while Edin (3-2) awaits the results of that draw to determine whether his team will move straight to the quarterfinals or require a tiebreaker to qualify.

Switzerland’s Pascal Hess (1-4) ended on a high note with a 6-4 win Toronto’s Travis Fanset (0-5).

The Syncrude National is the third stop of the four-event Grand Slam of Curling.