By Canadian Press

Gushue downs Koe 11-6 to make semifinal at Canada Cup; Koe headed for tiebreaker

Dec 7, 2018 | 9:45 PM

ESTEVAN, Sask. — Brad Gushue snapped Kevin Koe’s four-game win streak and earned a spot in the semifinal at the Canada Cup on Friday.

Gushue’s rink (4-2) from St. John’s, N.L. topped the Calgary skip (4-2) in the late draw 11-6, sending the latter to a tiebreaker against Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher (4-2) on Saturday. Gushue held a tiebreaker over Koe and Bottcher with an advantage in button measurements to advance to the playoffs.

“We’re in the semifinals, which is good. The three-way tie … we all beat each other, and we had the best shootout, so fortunately we advance right to the semifinal, which is nice,” said Gushue.

“After our loss (Thursday) it looked like we were going to have to fight our way through tiebreakers if today didn’t go as well as it did, but it went perfect and we got right to the semi so we’re pretty excited about it.”

Bottcher fell to Koe 10-3 on Friday morning, but rebounded by handing Brad Jacobs his first loss of the tournament 7-6 in late action.

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“We didn’t play very well against (Koe) today and that was our only bad game of the week,” said Bottcher.

“So we’re looking forward to coming out and playing again like we did tonight and hopefully give them a good run in the morning.”

Bottcher made a last-rock double to score two and seal the victory over Jacobs.

“It was three-quarters open and I just had to hit it,” he said.

“For me, it should be a pretty makeable shot, but to get to the playoffs at the Canada Cup there’s a little bit more on the line. So just took an extra second in the hack and made sure I nailed it.”

Despite the defeat, Jacobs (5-1) clinched first place and received a bye to the final.  

Earlier Friday, Jacobs’ rink from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., picked up its fifth win with a 7-6 victory over John Epping.

In women’s action Friday night, Laura Walker of Edmonton (2-4) beat Chelsea Carey of Calgary (2-4) 9-8 in an extra end. Allison Flaxey (2-4) also topped Darcy Robertson (1-5) 9-6.

Earlier Friday, Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones and Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., picked up a pair of wins each to move to 5-1 and clinch spots in the playoffs.

Einarson beat Casey Scheidegger (3-3) of Lethbridge, Alta., 8-5, and Walker 8-5 in afternoon action. Jones stole two in the sixth end en route to an early 7-4 win over Winnipeg’s Flaxey and later downed Scheidegger’s rink 9-6.

Meanwhile, Ottawa’s Rachel Homan beat Winnipeg’s Robertson 7-6 and Carey 9-2 to move to 4-2.

The women’s final round-robin draw wraps up Saturday morning before the semis kick off in the evening.

The Canadian Press