YORKTON, Sask. — Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen has moved onto the A qualifier match at the Canadian Open with an 8-3 victory over Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock during Draw 5 Wednesday night.

McEwen led 4-3 at the fourth-end break and pulled away with a triple in the fifth and a steal of one in six.

Photos: Team Casey

The National champions needed to score a late two in the final end to edge Charlottetown’s Adam Casey 7-6 in the afternoon draw but were able to pick it up and roll off a second victory as they look to capture their fifth career Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title.

“It’s definitely the start we wanted,” Team McEwen third B.J. Neufeld said. “We had a tough game against Casey. We had a bit of a bad last half of the second end and he capitalized but we were able to bounce back and we had a really good game out here tonight.”

McEwen needs one more win to reach the Canadian Open playoffs.

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Elsewhere in A bracket action, Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher scored triples in the first and fourth ends to rout Toronto’s John Epping 7-1. Bottcher led 4-0 after a steal of one in the second and Epping broke the shutout with a point in three.

Bottcher will now face Kevin Koe, who stole one in the extra end to claim a 5-4 win over John Morris in an all-Calgary rink battle. Trailing 3-1, Morris jumped into the lead with a three-ender in seven. Koe settled for one in the eighth to send it into the extra frame.

It was extra special for Team Koe second Brent Laing, who was celebrating his 36th birthday.

“We did get a couple of gifts, that’s for sure, we got a couple of sketchy wins,” Laing said. “I’ve been curling on my birthday pretty much every year so it’s pretty normal.”

Team Koe dropped their round robin match to the Bottcher rink during the National and Laing is looking forward to the rematch.

“It’s one of the teams we’ll have to beat in Alberta to get to the Brier and that’s obviously our goal so hopefully we can get some revenge,” Laing said. “They’re playing really well, they got to the A final and qualified to the semi at the last Grand Slam. They’re a young team working hard and playing well so we’re going to have to be a little bit better than we’ve been playing here today but I’m sure we will be.”

Over in the B bracket, Brad Jacobs earned a 5-3 victory to top Scotland’s David Murdoch again in an encore of the Sochi Olympics gold medal game. Jacobs, from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., opened the game with a deuce in the second and added single points in four and six. Murdoch settled for singles in three and five.

European champion Niklas Edin scored one in the eighth to give his rink from Sweden a 7-6 win over Charlottetown’s Adam Casey.