CALGARY — Canada won two of three team matches in Saturday’s late draw to take a 22-8 lead in points over Europe at the Continental Cup curling tournament.
Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen and his team of B.J. Neufeld, Matt Wozniak and Denni Neufeld scored deuces in the second, fourth and fifth ends to beat Sweden’s Niklas Edin 7-4 in Draw 9.
"We had comfortable control, managed to turn around the hammer in the first end," said McEwen.
On the women’s side, Edmonton’s Val Sweeting and her rink of Lori Olson-Johns, Dana Ferguson and Rachelle Brown downed Sweden’s Margaretha Sigfridsson 7-2.
Europe was able to earn one of a possible three points when Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud stole three in the second end to beat Brad Jacobs and his team of Ryan Fry, E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., 8-3.
The competition wraps up Sunday with Draws 10 and 11 consisting of a skins format. The winner will be decided by the team that reaches 30.5 points first.
Canada swept all three team matches in Saturday afternoon’s eighth draw to build a 20-7 lead over Europe.
Calgary’s John Morris, Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones and Ottawa’s Rachel Homan guided their teams through some tricky situations before emerging victorious to give Canada three more valuable points.
Morris beat Great Britain’s Dave Murdoch 7-5, Jones got past Russia’s Anna Sidorova 7-3 and Homan scored one in the eighth to nip Scotland’s Eve Muirhead 6-5.
In the morning mixed-doubles draws, Wozniak and Sweeting scored four in the third end, then stole singles in the next four ends en route to an 8-3 win over Scott Andrews of Scotland and Sigfridsson.
Winnipeg’s Kaitlyn Lawes and Morris built a 5-0 lead after three ends but needed the last rock to score two in the eighth to beat Muirhead and Murdoch 8-5.
Europe’s lone point in morning play came when Scotland’s Anna Sloan made her last-rock draw to score one as she and partner Christoffer Svae of Norway edged Mike and Dawn McEwen and 6-5.