By Larry Wood.
It’s just one more step on the trail of another Olympic gold medal.
Photo: The Ol’ Bear Kevin Martin is in Sunday’s final
Kevin Martin of Edmonton maintained his quest to repeat that massive global honour on Friday at the Cranbrook RecPlex, completed a six-game sweep at the Capital One Canada Cup of Curling.
Martin clinched a berth in the men’s final on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. MT/4:30 AT by stealing a 7-6 winner with a precise last rock against Canadian champion Jeff Stoughton of Winnipeg.
In a late-finisher, Martin and his team of John Morris, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert capped the unbeaten string with a 7-5 conquest of Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen (2-4).
Stoughton (Jon Mead, Reid Carruthers, Steve Gould) missed another difficult last rock in his evening closer against Glenn Howard of Coldwater, Ont., whose 5-3 win earned him second place and dropped Stoughton to third.
The same two teams will collided in Saturday’s semi-final at 6 p.m. MT/9 AT.
Stoughton, who won his first four games, and Howard logged identical 4-2 records. The Howard win averted a possible tiebreaker against Calgary’s Kevin Koe who finished 3-3 following an evening 7-4 win over Steve Laycock (1-5) of Saskatoon.