Martin, Howard and Koe await remaining playoff teams at the season’s first Capital One Grand Slam of Curling event
MISSISSAUGA, ONT., October 22, 2009 – Several teams remain in the hunt for a playoff berth with just one round robin draw remaining at the Grey Power World Cup of Curling, the men’s first 2009-10 Capital One Grand Slam of Curling event. A pre-Olympic tournament featuring five of Canada’s top 2010 Olympic hopefuls and nine international 2010 Olympic qualifiers, the event is taking place at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ont.
Canadians Kevin Martin (Edmonton, Alta.), Glenn Howard (Coldwater, Ont.) and Kevin Koe (Edmonton, Alta.) are the lone squads to secure a quarterfinal berth through the tournament’s first seven draws.
Howard defeated American John Shuster (Duluth, Minnesota) 6-5 in an extra end and slid past Switzerland’s Ralph Stoeckli (Ittigen, Switzerland) 8-5 today to complete the preliminary round with a perfect 6-0 mark.
Earlier in the afternoon, Martin edged Koe 9-5 to improve to 5-0. The loss dropped Koe to third place with a mark of 4-1.
Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud (Oslo, Norway), Denmark’s Ulrick Schmidt (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Sweden’s Niklas Edin (Karlstad, Sweden) are currently tied for fourth place with a record of 3-2 while Brad Gushue (St. John’s, Nfld.) and Germany’s Andy Kapp (Fuessen, Germany) are at 3-3.
Randy Ferbey (Edmonton, Alta.) sits at 2-3 and plays against Martin this evening in his final preliminary round game.
Among the notable teams that have been eliminated from quarterfinal contention include reigning World Championship gold medallist David Murdoch (Lockerbie, Scotland), who remains winless through five games, and China’s Fengchun Wang (Harbin China), who is 1-4.
The tournament’s additional quarterfinalists will be determined following the tournament’s final round robin draw at 8:00 p.m. ET this evening. If necessary, teams will compete in a tie-breaker on Saturday morning to determine the event’s final playoff field.
Martin’s victory over Koe was his fifth straight to open the tournament.
The turning point in the game came in the fourth end. After Koe drew around a cluster of stones to score three points in the third frame for a 3-1 advantage, Martin answered right back in the fourth end with a three-point draw to the button to reclaim the lead.
“I think we made every shot that end,” said Martin. “Eight for eight and got a three right back. That shows a lot.”
Martin outscored Koe 5-2 over the game’s final three ends to secure the victory.
Earlier in the day, Koe became the third team to secure a berth in the tournament’s playoff round after defeating Wang 6-4 to earn his fourth straight victory to open the event.
“You just want to make the playoffs and then go from there,” said Koe following his game with Wang. “You’re going to playing someone tough in there anyways. It’s been a good week so far so hopefully we keep it going.”
Gushue rebounded from an 0-2 start to finish the round robin at 3-3 and remain in the hunt for a playoff berth following a 6-4 victory over Murdoch and a 9-4 win over Schmidt.
“We struggled really bad yesterday and came back with a decent game against Glenn (Howard) last night,” said Gushue following his win against Schmidt. “This morning we played very good against Dave (Murdoch) and tonight (against Schmidt) even better. I think we made some adjustments that were necessary and things are looking up.”
The first round robin matches of the women’s Three Nations Cup began today as the tournament’s two Canadian teams split their opening games. Stefanie Lawton (Saskatoon, Sask.) defeated reigning World Champion Bingyu Wang (Harbin, China) 9-3 while Shannon Kleibrink (Calgary, Alta.) fell 6-3 to Great Britain’s Eve Muirhead (Perth, Scotland).
“It was a good start for us, definitely,” said Lawton. “We put up a three in the first end and a four in the third end. In third end, our second and third made some great shots to really set things up and get behind the guards.”
For a complete overview of this evening’s results, visit www.grandslamofcurling.com.
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- Glenn Howard Wins Grey Power World Cup of Curling
- Draw Schedule for Grey Power World Cup of Curling