News Canadian Open

NORTH BATTLEFORD, Sask. — Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni is staying in the A-side mix of the triple knockout preliminary round at the Meridian Canadian Open.

Tirinzoni scored four in the second and held on to defeat WFG Masters champion Allison Flaxey of Caledon, Ont., 7-5 during Draw 4 action Wednesday.

Team Tirinzoni (2-0) added a pair in the fifth leading 6-3. Flaxey (1-1) cut into the lead with a single in six and a steal of one in seven. Tirinzoni tacked on another in eight and is now one victory away from qualifying for the playoffs.

“It’s always easier to go the higher route, of course,” Tirinzoni said. “We still have tough games ahead of us and we just take it one rock at a time.”

Super spare Cathy Overton-Clapham is back in the Team Tirinzoni lineup with third Manuela Siegrist out due to a knee injury. Overton-Clapham, winner of five Grand Slam titles, filled in during the Boost National last month and they finished runner-up.

“She’s so easy to play with really,” Tirinzoni said. “With all of her experience we don’t have to tell her anything. She does her job and it’s so easy for us to have her on our team. There is a communication issue, of course, because of the English-German thing but the more we play, the better we get. I’m looking forward to the rest of the week.”

Elsewhere, Boost National winner Kerri Einarson remains in the B group following a 5-2 win over Tracy Fleury of Sudbury, Ont. Einarson (1-1) took two in the sixth and stole singles in seven and eight. Fleury fell to 0-2 on the day — losing to Flaxey in an extra end during the early morning draw — and is now in the C-side where her team must win three consecutive games to avoid elimination.

In men’s division action, American John Shuster drew for two in the seventh to lift his American team to a 5-3 win over Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher and reach the A-finals. Shuster (2-0) has struggled in the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling series this season with zero playoff appearances through the first three events, however, the confidence is growing among the group.

“We obviously had a rough first-half of the season playing these Slams and not getting the results we wanted,” Team Shuster second Matt Hamilton said. “We had about a two-week break with the holidays and we all went out and practised and did our own thing. We were confident that we were going to be able to rattle off a few wins here. Triple knockout format is great especially here it’s you have to win three before you lose three so we’ve controlled our own destiny the whole time and we were like, ‘okay, let’s just go out here and do our own thing,’ and it’s working so far.”

Hamilton cited the team’s second-place finish at the Curl Mesabi Classic in Eveleth, Minn., last month as a turning point for the crew.

“Before this holiday break we finished second in the U.S. spiel so that helped build that confidence back up,” Hamilton said. “Now we feel like we’re rolling and can play with anybody.”

Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers took down Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock 8-3 in the B-side. Trailing 3-2, Carruthers scored three in the fifth to leap into the lead, stole two in the sixth when Laycock’s last picked and swiped another point in seven to bring out handshakes. Laycock drops to the C event and needs to win three straight in order qualify for the playoffs and avoid elimination in the triple knockout.

Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen picked up a 5-3 victory over John Morris and his team from Vernon, B.C. in the last first-round match of the A event.

NOTES: The Meridian Canadian Open is the fourth event and third major of the 2016-17 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season. … TV coverage begins Thursday at 11:30 a.m. CT on Sportsnet. … The event features a triple knockout preliminary round where teams must win three games before they lose three in order to qualify for the playoffs. … Winners of the Meridian Canadian Open qualify for the season-ending Humpty’s Champions Cup taking place at the end of April in Calgary. … Meridian Canadian Open action continues Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. CT and runs through to Sunday at the Civic Centre in North Battleford.