News Champions Cup

CALGARY — It was a little sketchy, but Alina Pätz is clear through to the Humpty’s Champions Cup quarterfinals at WinSport Arena.

Pätz picked up her fourth consecutive win at the season-ending Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling tournament escaping with a 7-5 extra-end victory over Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones.

The Swiss team missed the previous three women’s events in the series and just barely made it into the Humpty’s Champions Cup. Teams had to win high-profile tournaments during the season to earn spots. Jones captured the WestJet Players’ Championship earlier this month, but had already punched her ticket as the defending Humpty’s Champions Cup victor. That freed up the final spot for Pätz, who claimed the International Bernese Ladies Cup.

“It feels awesome,” said Pätz, who defeated Jones to capture the world championship in 2015. “We were already happy with 3-0 yesterday but we had hoped to give them a good game today and we did, especially the first six ends, and we’re definitely happy with a 4-0.”

Pätz potted pairs of points in the second and fourth ends and stole one in five to grab a 5-2 lead. Jones settled for a single in six, but stole in seven and eight to force the extra.

Team Pätz didn’t need to throw their last in the extra though as Jones missed on her last.

“It was actually not an easy game,” Pätz said. “The ice was really frosty so both teams struggled with the draw weights. We played okay. We struggled a bit in the last three ends but managed to play a good extra end and that was enough.”

Jones (2-1) has one more round-robin game to go against Allison Flaxey (1-2) of Caledon, Ont., in the late afternoon draw.

The top eight men’s and women’s teams qualify for the weekend playoffs.