VICTORIA — Recently crowned Brier champ Kevin Koe cruised to a 4 & 3 victory over John Epping in the quarterfinals of the Elite 10 Saturday.
Koe, of Calgary, advances to the semifinals and will face Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers, who received a direct bye at the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event.
Koe opened with the hammer and landed on the lid with his last to count two and take the first end. Epping, of Toronto, was forced to push in the second and Koe made it through the port to punch out a counter to win the third to go 2-up.
Epping attempted a double raise in four, but Koe’s shot rock jammed and stuck around to count for the steal.
Koe swiped again in five when Epping attempted an angle raise that missed to bring out handshakes.
GSOC Elite 10: Scores | Standings | TV schedule | Watch online for free
Meanwhile, Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock won the eighth end for a 1-up win over defending champion Mike McEwen of Winnipeg in the other quarterfinal match and will play Brad Gushue, of St. John’s, N.L.
Gushue, a four-time Grand Slam champion, earned a direct bye to the semis with a 4-0 record in round-robin play.
McEwen opened with the hammer and did not need to throw his last in the first as Laycock wrecked his shot on a guard to go 1-up. Laycock tied it up with a deuce in the second and the teams alternated pushes in three and four.
McEwen scored in five and Laycock got a deuce in six with a sweet draw shot that put on the brakes just in time to count.
McEwen was held to a push in seven to relinquish the hammer coming home. Laycock sat two after his first skip stone and McEwen missed on his last to advance.
The semifinals start at 10:30 p.m. ET / 7:30 p.m. PT. Watch live on Sportsnet.
NOTES: The Elite 10 is the fifth event of the Pinty’s GSOC season and runs through to Sunday at the Q Centre at West Shore Parks & Recreation. … The Elite 10 uses a match play format where teams attempt to win the most ends per game by either scoring two or more points (with hammer) or stealing at least one point (without hammer). … New rules for the event this year are tick shots are not allowed on guards sitting on the centre line during the first five rocks of play and sweepers cannot use stopwatches.
