News National

PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. — A good start powered Jim Cotter past Mark Kean during Draw 7 action at the National. 

Cotter scored four points in the opening end en route to a 7-2 victory Friday afternoon at the third leg of the Grand Slam of Curling series.

The Kelowna/Vernon, B.C., crew improved to a 2-2 record with one round-robin game to go while Kean’s Toronto team dropped to 1-3.

Elsewhere, defending champion Glenn Howard of Coldwater, Ont., pulled away with four in the seventh end to defeat Toronto’s Greg Balsdon 9-4. Howard now sports a 2-2 record after dropping his first couple matches. Balsdon’s team fell to 1-3. 

Rob Fowler of Brandon, Man., secured a playoff spot with a 7-4 win over Switzerland’s Sven Michel. Fowler jumped ahead scoring three in the fourth and stealing two in the fifth to keep his unblemished record intact at 4-0. Michel is now level at 2-2.

Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton (2-2) earned a 5-2 win over Peter de Cruz of Switzerland (1-3) and Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock (2-2) bounced back from two consecutive losses to beat Thomas Ulsrud from Norway 6-3. Ulsrud’s rink is now 1-3.

Eighteen of the top men’s teams from around the world are competing in the National with a $100,000 CAD purse on the line. Two round-robin draws remain Friday with the top eight teams overall, regardless of pools, qualifying for Saturday’s quarterfinals at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre.