TRURO, N.S. — Jim Cotter’s final shot in the extra end hit and stuck around for the winning point as the Vernon, B.C., team edged Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher 5-4 during Draw 7 of the Masters on Thursday.
Cotter opened with the hammer but gave up a steal of one. Bottcher made a nifty raise triple in the second and Cotter still had a chance to score two but his shooter rolled and he only got one.
Bottcher was held to a point in three, Cotter made a double to score two in the fourth and take the lead. The teams alternated singles through the fifth and sixth ends. Bottcher blanked the seventh but couldn’t get the double in eight and only counted one to force the extra end.
Team Cotter, from Vernon, B.C., won the Tour Challenge Tier 2 event to earn a berth at the Masters and hold a 2-0 record in the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event. Team Bottcher are now at 1-1.
GSOC Masters Live: Men’s scores | Women’s scores
Elsewhere in Draw 7, Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen is the first to qualify for the playoffs with an 8-2 victory over Calgary’s Pat Simmons.
“It feels pretty good,” said Team McEwen second Matt Wozniak. “That was our best game by far so we’re slowly kind of improving game by game and looking forward to keeping it going.”
McEwen made the runback and stuck to score four in the sixth that brought out the handshakes. Although not as thrilling as their shot of the year from the Masters last year, Wozniak was happy with the result to move up to a 3-0 record.
“They were just kind of going all out for a steal there and it was either going to be probably one for them or a bunch for us type of thing,” Wozniak said. “Not quite as crazy as last year but we’ll take it anyway for sure.”
Simmons, the two-time reign Brier champion, fell to a 1-2 record and needs to win his final round robin game for a chance to stay in the mix.
Tour Challenge winner Kevin Koe made a clutch shot with his last rock in the final end to score two and lift his Calgary team to a 7-6 win over Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock. Koe climbed to a 2-0 record while Layock is down to 0-2.
Reigning world champion Niklas Edin of Sweden made the delicate draw to get the single in the final end and win 5-4 versus Glenn Howard, of Penetanguishene, Ont. Edin improved to 2-0 and Howard fell to 1-2.
In women’s action, Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones (2-0) rolled out to a 9-2 win over Alina Paetz (0-2) of Switzerland in a rematch of the 2015 world women’s final. Jones broke a 2-2 tie with a deuce in five and slid away stealing three in six and two in seven.
The Masters is the second stop on the seven-event 2015-16 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling schedule and runs through to Sunday at the Rath Eastlink Community Centre.
