Rocque rolls past Fujisawa to begin Boost National drive
CHESTERMERE, Alta. — Edmonton’s Team Kelsey Rocque scored a 7-5 victory over Team Satsuki Fujisawa from Japan to start their run at the Boost National during Draw 3 action Tuesday afternoon at Chestermere Recreation Centre.
Team Rocque will continue their quest to qualify for the playoffs through the A brackets of the triple knockout stage while Fujisawa fell into the B event.
“It feels good,” skip Kelsey Rocque said. “We had a pretty solid game as a team, so it’s nice to start off pretty strong.”
After forcing Fujisawa to a single in the first, Rocque took control scoring two in the second and steal two in the third to build a 4-1 advantage.
Fujisawa settled for another single in the fourth but stole one in the fifth to close within one.
The teams alternated deuces in six and seven with Rocque holding a one-point lead and the hammer coming home and the Alberta skip hit to add another point on the board.
“They’re a really good team,” Rocque said. “I think just our rock positioning in this game was really good and we were able to keep them chasing for a bit, which was nice.”
She added: “We couldn’t tick but Rachel made two really good ones around the centre and we were kind of set from there.”
Elsewhere in Draw 3, Winnipeg’s Team Jennifer Jones defeated Team Min-Ji Kim of South Korea 5-3 and two-time reigning Players’ champions Team Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., beat Sweden’s Team Isabella Wranå 6-5 in an extra end.
Regina’s Team Matt Dunstone scored three points in the eighth end to prevail 8-7 over Calgary’s Team Kevin Koe in the lone men’s game on the draw. Tyler Tardi is filling in at third on Team Dunstone this week.
Boost National: Live Scores and Standings | Draw Schedule | Broadcast Schedule
UP NEXT
Triple knockout play continues with Draw 4 at 6:30 p.m. MT. Broadcast coverage begins Thursday at 2 p.m. ET / Noon MT on Sportsnet, Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).
TRIPLE KNOCKOUT EXPLAINED
The triple knockout consists of three brackets: A, B and C. Teams must win three games in order to qualify for the playoffs. Each loss drops a team to a lower bracket until they lose three games and are out of the tournament. Two A teams (3-0 records), three B teams (3-1 records) and three C teams (3-2 records) advance to the quarterfinals.
NO TICK ZONE
Teams cannot tick guards off of the centre line while the five-rock, free guard zone is in effect during the eighth and extra ends only.
NOTES
The Boost National is the second of five events on the 2021-22 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling schedule and features 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world. … A combined $300,000 prize purse is up for grabs with the winning teams earning $33,000 plus spots in the season-ending KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup. … Triple knockout play runs through to Saturday morning. The quarterfinals and semifinals are also Saturday with both finals set for Sunday. … Tickets are available at boost.goigniter.com.
