SHERWOOD PARK, Alta. — Team Simmons’s run has come to an end.
Playing in their final event together, the Calgary crew fell to Toronto’s John Epping 5-4 in Saturday’s men’s quarterfinals at the Humpty’s Champions Cup.
The band is breaking up with both Carter Rycroft and Nolan Thiessen stepping back from competitive curling. Third John Morris, out with a hernia injury, has already announced plans to rejoin Jim Cotter in B.C.
Simmons got on the board first stealing a point in the second end. Epping bounced back with a single in three and stole a pair in the fourth to go up by two. Simmons got a deuce in five to knot it up 3-3.
Epping looked to score a bunch in six with three stones in play, however they were protected by a frozen Simmons stone, and he attempted a long runback but could only nudge the counter and gave up the steal.
Following a blank in seven, Epping got the deuce coming home to advance to the semifinals.
Epping will play Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., who advanced with an 8-3 win over Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock. Gushue was forced to take one in the fourth for a 3-2 lead and stole four in the fifth to crack the game wide open and Laycock was unable to mount a comeback as the rinks split singles in six and seven.
Meanwhile, Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen continues to run through the tournament rolling past Niklas Edin of Sweden 7-1 and into the semifinals. McEwen, who topped the round-robin standings at 4-0, made a hit and roll to kick Edin’s shot rock out the side door and score a deuce in the first. Edin faced four with his last in two, hit a guard, but caught a lucky break as it spun to the button for a single.
McEwen made back-to-back blanks and his patience paid off as he put the pressure on in five making a runback to count five and bring out the handshakes.
McEwen meets Reid Carruthers in an all-Winnipeg rink battle. Carruthers edged Calgary’s Kevin Koe 4-3 with a single in the final end.
GSOC Champions Cup: Scores | Standings | Playoffs | TV Schedule | Watch Online
NOTES: The Humpty’s Champions Cup is the seventh and final event of the 2015-16 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season and runs through to Sunday at the Sherwood Park Arena Sports Centre. … Teams had to win a high-profile tour event over the course of the season to qualify. … The event is the second of two new tournaments added to the schedule this year along with the Tour Challenge, which kicked off the season in September. … The Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling returns for the 2016-17 season starting with the Masters, Oct. 25-30, in Okotoks, Alta.