CALGARY — Ottawa’s Rachel Homan is heating up at the Humpty’s Champions Cup and cooled down former teammate Jamie Sinclair in the process.
Homan, who qualified for the playoffs via tiebreakers, won her third consecutive game of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season finale stopping Sinclair 6-3 in Saturday’s quarterfinals.
The reigning Humpty’s Champions Cup winner Homan now faces Scotland’s Eve Muirhead, who eliminated Olympic gold medallist Anna Hasselborg of Sweden 4-3.
Team Sinclair topped the round-robin table with an undefeated 4-0 record and was riding the wave on a seven-game winning streak stretching back to the Players’ Championship two weeks ago in Toronto where the Blaine, Minn., group became the first U.S. squad to capture a title in the series.
Sinclair, who is a dual citizen, previously played with Homan in their teenage years claiming the 2007 Canada Winter Games gold medal together.
With hammer to start, Sinclair was limited to one point in the second but managed to make it 2-0 by stealing one in the third. The six-time Grand Slam champion Homan faced two tight to the button and chipped off the top one to roll an inch too far.
Homan threatened to strike the scoreboard big time in the fifth end, however, Sinclair ran some serious damage control dust busting the house with a quad takeout to sit three and the force was on for just a single.
The momentum continued to shift in Homan’s favour. Although Sinclair pulled off a pressure draw in six to re-take a two-point advantage, she fell into trouble in the seventh and left the door open for Homan to hit for three and seize the lead.
Sinclair couldn’t get the equalizer in the final frame with her draw against four sliding too far and handed Homan an additional two points.
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Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg also advanced to the semifinals with a sensational shot for two in the final frame to knock out Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni 6-5. The reigning GSOC Bonus Cup champion trailed by one but held the all-important hammer coming home and angle-raised her own in to bump off Tirinzoni’s rock and score the winning deuce.
Jones now takes on Winnipeg’s Kerri Einarson, who defeated Calgary’s Chelsea Carey 5-3 in a repeat of the season-opening Tour Challenge Tier 2 final.
It was the final game for the hometown Team Carey crew as they plan to disband. Carey has formed a new team for next season with third Sarah Wilkes (Team Kleibrink) plus second Dana Ferguson and lead Rachel Brown (Team Sweeting). Current Team Carey second Jocelyn Peterman is moving on to join Jones as her second, Jill Officer, is stepping back into an alternate role.
The men’s quarterfinals at 4 p.m. MT feature Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., going up against Winnipeg’s Jason Gunnlaugson, Scotland’s Bruce Mouat meeting Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen, Calgary’s Kevin Koe clashing with Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher and Glenn Howard of Tiny, Ont., taking on American Team Greg Persinger, skipped by third Rich Ruohonen.
Both men’s and women’s semifinals go down at 8 p.m. MT.
The women’s final is set for Sunday at 10 a.m. MT followed by the men’s final at 2 p.m. MT.
Watch all playoff action on Sportsnet 360 with online streaming available at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare TV (international).