Homan tops Tirinzoni to safe spot in KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup playoffs

REGINA — The KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup playoff image isn’t absolutely fashioned however is shaping up following the conclusion of pool play.

Canada’s Rachel Homan claimed a spot within the ladies’s quarterfinals with a 7-5 victory over Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni in the course of the round-robin finale Friday night time in entrance of a packed home on the Co-operators Centre.

Six groups qualify for the playoffs with the highest two receiving byes to the semifinals. A logjam on the ladies’s aspect meant a 3-2 file may both get a crew an specific path to the ultimate 4 (Canada’s Kerri Einarson) or into the quarterfinals (Homan and Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa) or a detour by means of a tiebreaker (Canada’s Jennifer Jones, South Korea’s Eun-Ji Gim, Sweden’s Staff Hasselborg and Canada’s Clancy Grandy) based mostly on draw-to-the-button shootout scores.

“These draw pictures are necessary in these occasions and it feels good to qualify,” Staff Homan second Emma Miskew mentioned. “Clearly, we had a pair tough video games in a row, battled again within the Hasselborg sport and virtually pulled it off. Nevertheless it feels good to place two good video games collectively and hoping to maintain it going.”

Trailing by one on the halftime break, Homan took management within the fifth finish with a bump to attain three factors that swung the momentum in her favour.

KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup on Sportsnet

The Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season comes to a close with the KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup. Catch the action live beginning Thursday, May 4, on Sportsnet and SN NOW.

Watch on SN NOW

Broadcast Schedule

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Tirinzoni, who was already eradicated and completed at 1-4, was compelled to a single within the sixth. Fourth Alina Pätz confronted 5 counters and pinballed across the four-foot circle for the one level.

Homan matched with some extent within the seventh and ran Tirinzoni out of rocks within the eighth.

Oddly sufficient, the 2 groups met within the Princess Auto Gamers’ Championship round-robin finale precisely three weeks though that point the tables have been turned with Tirinzoni ousting Homan to get right into a tiebreaker en path to reaching the ultimate.

“I believe that it was good to begin with hammer. That’s all the time a pleasant factor in opposition to a crew like that,” Miskew mentioned. “They don’t miss rather a lot, so after we play in opposition to them we simply actually attempt to hold the sport as shut as we will.

“We bought a break in getting three and saved it going from there. It’s all the time going to be a battle in opposition to them and it’s good to drag off the win after dropping within the Gamers’.”

Elsewhere on the draw, Staff Hasselborg bought into the tiebreakers with a 6-3 win over Norway’s Marianne Rørvik (1-4).

Anna Hasselborg is away on maternity depart and second Agnes Knochenhauer, who can also be anticipating a child, has moved as much as skip. Third Sara McManus is throwing fourth stones, alternate Johanna Heldin is filling in at second whereas Sofia Mabergs continues to guide issues off.

Winnipeg’s Kaitlyn Lawes (2-3) completed her season within the win column with a 9-5 victory over Isabelle Ladouceur (1-4) of Dundas, Ont.

In the meantime, Scotland’s Ross Whyte (2-3) scored a spot within the males’s tiebreakers by not solely defeating Pat Ferris (0-5) from Grimsby, Ont., 7-3 but in addition attributable to draw-to-the-button shootout scores.

Whyte’s tally edged out Italy’s Joël Retornaz by just one.4 cm to maintain his season going for no less than one other day.

“It was a shaky, nervous second for us however it’s not usually the most important second comes earlier than the sport,” Whyte mentioned with a smile. “It was good to know going into the sport that if we win we’d be onto the tiebreaker.”

Down 2-0 after giving up a single steal within the second, Whyte bounced again with a deuce within the third to tie it then swiped back-to-back factors within the fourth and fifth ends to construct a two-point lead.

Ferris couldn’t put it aside and was restricted to a single within the sixth then shook fingers after Whyte counted three within the seventh.

“We type of caught at it,” Whyte mentioned. “We gave up a steal in two and people boys have been enjoying very nicely. It was all the time tough the entire method by means of. We managed to place a few good stones in the fitting positions on the proper occasions and managed to come back by means of ultimately.”

PLAYOFF PICTURE

Males’s Division: Canada’s Matt Dunstone and Brendan Bottcher each earned byes to the semifinals with unblemished 5-0 information. Sweden’s Niklas Edin and Canada’s Brad Gushue clinched playoff berths within the quarterfinals at 4-1.

The ultimate two males’s spots are nonetheless up for grabs and can be decided through tiebreakers: Whyte vs. Canada’s Reid Carruthers and John Shuster vs. Korey Dropkin’s crew in an all-American matchup. All 4 groups completed pool play with 2-3 information.

Girls’s Division: Tabitha Peterson of the US took the No. 1 spot and a bye at 4-1. Primarily based on draw-to-the-button shootout scores, Einarson earned the bye to the semifinals with Homan and Fujisawa advancing to the quarterfinals.

There can be two ladies’s tiebreakers as nicely: Hasselborg vs. Gim and Jones vs. Grandy.

UP NEXT

The tiebreakers kick off Saturday’s motion on the Co-operators Centre starting at 12 p.m. native time (2 p.m. ET). Watch reside on Sportsnet One or Sportsnet NOW.

NOTES

The KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup is the sixth and last occasion of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season that includes 12 males’s groups and 12 ladies’s groups who’ve received prime tour titles to qualify. … The quarterfinals are additionally Saturday at 4 p.m. native time (6 p.m. ET) adopted by the semifinals at 8 p.m. native time (10 p.m. ET). … Each finals are scheduled for Sunday.