McEwen, Bottcher & Koe move onto A-qualifiers at Canadian Open
YORKTON, Sask. — Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen has moved onto the A-event finals of the triple knockout preliminary round of the Canadian Open with an 8-3 victory over Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock during Draw 5 Wednesday night.
Already up 4-3 at the fourth-end break, McEwen (2-0) pulled away with a three-ender in the fifth followed by a steal of one in six. Laycock (1-1) dropped into the B-event.
McEwen, who captured his fourth Grand Slam title last month at the National, needed a deuce in the eighth end to edge Charlottetown’s Adam Casey 7-6 earlier in the afternoon draw.
Elsewhere, Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher also improved to 2-0 to reach the A-qualifiers with a 7-1 rout over Toronto’s John Epping (1-1).
Bottcher will now face Kevin Koe, who stole one in the extra end to claim a 5-4 win over John Morris in an all-Calgary battle. It was extra special for Team Koe second Brent Laing, who was celebrating his 36th birthday.
“We did get a couple of gifts, that’s for sure, we got a couple of sketchy wins,” Laing said. “I’ve been curling on my birthday pretty much every year so it’s pretty normal.”
Koe lost to Bottcher during round-robin play at the National and Laing is looking forward to the rematch.
“It’s one of the teams we’ll have to beat in Alberta to get to the Brier and that’s obviously our goal so hopefully we can get some revenge,” Laing said. “They’re playing really well, they got to the A final and qualified to the semi at the last Grand Slam. They’re a young team working hard and playing well so we’re going to have to be a little bit better than we’ve been playing here today but I’m sure we will be.”
Over in the B-event, Brad Jacobs (1-1) of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., earned a 5-3 victory to top Scotland’s David Murdoch (0-2) in an encore of the Sochi Olympics gold medal game. Meanwhile, Sochi bronze medallist Niklas Edin (1-1) scored one in the eighth to give his Swedish squad a 7-6 win over Casey (0-2). Murdoch and Casey dropped to the C-event and each must win three straight games in order to avoid elimination.
