The playoffs are set at the RBC Dominion Securities Showdown curling championship in Swift Current, and a pair of Saskatchewan teams are in the hunt in the men’s draw.
Saskatoon’s Tyler Tardi and his Green Machines foursome will see action in the playoffs alongside Martensville’s Dylan Derksen, both of whom qualified through the B side on Saturday afternoon.
Tardi and his rink of third Colton Flasch, second Kevin Marsh and lead Daniel Marsh scored one in the eighth to take a 4-3 victory over Calgary’s Kevin Koe and book their spot in the money round.
It was an all Saskatchewan showdown in another of the B finals, with Derksen, third Brayden Grindheim, second Michael Hom and lead Austin Krupski stealing one in the final end to take a 5-4 win over Regina’s Catlin Schneider, third Shaun Meachem, second Brady Scharback and lead Chris Haichert.
The other B qualifier saw Japan’s Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi down Edmonton’s Evan Van Amsterdam 6-5.
The C finals saw Fox Valley’s Carl deConinck Smith, third Ryan Deis, second Dustin Mikush and lead Kailin Deis battle back from two early losses to reach a qualifying game, but there they’d fall 7-0 to Edmonton’s Evan Van Amsterdam.
In the other C qualifiers, Koe rebounded with a 9-1 win over Edmonton’s Jacob Libbus and Ontario’s Jayden King defeated Schneider 6-2.
As a result, the quarter-finals will see Tardi take on Derksen, King face Winnipeg’s Jordon McDonald, Koe battle Italy’s Joel Retornaz and Van Amsterdam play Yamaguchi. All of those contests are at 8:30 a.m.
In the women’s draw, Edmonton’s Serena Gray-Withers defeated Korea’s EunJung Kim 6-4, Japan’s Ikue Kitazawa scored three in the final end to down Edmonton’s Selena Sturmay and Victoria’s Kayla MacMillan took a 6-3 win over Japan’s Miya Ueno in the B finals.
The C finals saw Martensville’s Ashley Olson, third Stephanie Schmidt, second Taylor Stremick and lead Kaylin Mattern reach a qualifying game before falling 9-2 to Sturmay. Kim defeated Calgary’s Kayla Skrlik 8-1 and Ueno downed Japan’s Mina Kobayashi 7-5 thanks to three in the eighth in the other C qualifiers.
The women’s quarter-finals will see Kim facing Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa, MacMillan playing Kitazawa, Sturmay against Korea’s Kyeongae Kim and Ueno taking on Gray-Withers. Those contests are at 12 p.m.
The semifinals in both the men’s and women’s draws are at 3:30 p.m., followed by the finals at 7 p.m. at the InnovationPlex.
