A big win at the Tim Hortons Brier Canadian Men鈥檚 Curling Championship Wednesday morning in Brandon has Vernon鈥檚 Jim Cotter in a good position to advance to the next round.
Cotter defeated Jamie Koe of the Northwest Territories 9-5 to improve to 4-2 and alone in third place with one Pool B round-robin game left at 5 p.m. Pacific vs Ontario. Koe dropped to 1-5.
The top four teams from the group will join the top four teams from Pool A in a four-game round robin starting Thursday. Tiebreakers will be played Thursday morning, if necessary, to see who ends up in the next round.
Each team carries over their record from the preliminary round. Top four teams after Friday鈥檚 conclusion advance to the playoffs, starting Saturday.
Cotter, backed by third Steve Laycock, second Tyrel Griffith and lead Rick Sawatsky, was in a thieving mood Wednesday morning, stealing three of his first four points against Koe for a 4-2 lead at the five-end break.
The B.C. champs took control of the game in the seventh end, scoring three for a 7-3 lead. After Koe got a pair back in the eighth end, Cotter forced early handshakes with a deuce in nine.
A Cotter win over Scott McDonald of Kingston at 5 p.m. will officially clinch a spot in the next round for the Vernon rink. McDonald fell to 3-3 with a 9-8, extra end loss to Terry Odishaw of New Brunswick (2-4).
Alberta鈥檚 Kevin Koe and defending champion Brad Gushue鈥檚 Team Canada rink from Newfoundland/Labrador punched their tickets to round two Wednesday morning. Koe improved to 6-0 by thumping winless David St. Louis of Nunavut 13-2 in eight ends.
Gushue also needed eight ends to improve to 5-1 with a 9-2 romp over Stuart Thompson of Nova Scotia (3-3).
Thompson plays Kevin Koe in the final round-robin draw. A Koe win would also give the Vernon rink a berth into the next round.
In Pool A, Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario (6-0) and Wild Card entry Brendan Bottcher of Edmonton (5-1) have clinched spots in round two. Kirk Muyres of Saskatchewan 鈥� Laycock鈥檚 former team 鈥� is third at 4-2 while Jon Solberg of the Yukon and Mike McEwen of Manitoba are 3-3.
* At the World Wheelchair Curling Championships in Stirling, Scotland, inserting Spallumcheen鈥檚 Ina Forrest into the lineup has paid off for Team Canada.
After losing their first four games with Forrest watching from the wings, the three-time world champ and two-time Paralympic gold medalist was put into the lineup and Canada hasn鈥檛 lost since.
Canada defeated Slovakia 8-7 Wednesday to improve to 2-4, good for ninth place in the 12-team field. Canada got into the win column with a 5-3 win over China. They lost 7-6 to Latvia, 8-4 to Korea, 5-2 to Norway and 8-4 to Switzerland.
roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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