Sunday’s finalists to be determined Saturday night
(by Jason Simmonds)
SUMMERSIDE – Toronto’s John Epping and his teammates may have come into the Capital One Grand Slam of Curling Sun Life Financial Players’ Championship as a relative unknown, but the young Toronto rink is quickly changing that.
Skip John Epping calls a shot.
Epping finished in a four-way tie for first place after Friday’s round-robin finale with reigning world champion Glenn Howard of Coldwater, Ont., Edmonton’s Kevin Martin and Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen.
“I’m sure a lot of people didn’t expect us to make the playoffs being the eighth seed,” said Epping. “Our first four games were against the No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 seeds.
“After our first four games, we were 3-1. We probably would have been happy at 2-2 or even 1-3, and then win a couple of games on the last day. We’ll definitely take it.”
The four rinks finished 5-2 (won-lost), and when the tiebreaking formula of head-to-head records was applied, the final standings ended up – 1. Epping, 2. Howard, 3. McEwen, 4. Martin.
Saturday night’s semifinals will feature Epping taking on Martin while Howard battles McEwen. Both games are 7:30 starts. The winners will advance to the championship game on Sunday at 1 p.m.
“We’ll take first place,” said Epping. “In these eight-end games, hammer is a big deal, and if we can grab hammer in the playoffs it will be massive for us.”