Ottawa’s Emma Miskew and Toronto’s Ryan Fry put together a second-half comeback Saturday night to reach the quarter-finals of the 2016 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship in Saskatoon.
Ryan Fry and Emma Miskew secured their berth in the quarter-finals with a win Saturday night at the 2016 Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship. (Photo, Curling Canada/Darlene Danyliw)
Battling the Saskatchewan duo of Nancy Martin and Catlin Schneider, Fry and Miskew fell behind 4-2 after surrendering a fourth-end stolen deuce.
But Miskew and Fry rallied to tie it with single points in the fifth and sixth ends, and after giving up a single in the seventh, put away the win with three in the eighth end to reach the final eight.
The quarter-finals are set for 10 a.m. MDT on Sunday, with the semis at 1 p.m. and the gold-medal game at 4 p.m.
Live-streaming broadcasts of the playoffs can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/user/ccacurling.
In the other first-round playoff matchups, Rachel Homan (Ottawa) and Mark Nichols (St. John’s) raced to a 4-0 lead and sailed to an 8-3 triumph over Mark Dacey (Halifax) and Jennifer Baxter (Sackville, N.S.); Lisa Weagle (Ottawa) and John Epping (Toronto) were 8-5 winners over Hugh and Janet Murphy (Mississauga, Ont.); and reigning Canadian mixed doubles champs Kalynn Park (Lethbridge) and Charley Thomas (Calgary) doubled Joanne Courtney (Edmonton) and Reid Carruthers (Winnipeg) 8-4.
The four round-robin pool winners were seeded directly into the quarter-finals. Here are the pairings for the final eight: Miskew and Fry vs. Mike and Dawn McEwen (Winnipeg); Homan and Nichols vs. Jocelyn Peterman (Calgary) and Brett Gallant (St. John’s); Eagle and Epping vs. Marliese Kasner (Saskatoon) and Dustin Kalthoff (Saskatoon); and Park and Thomas vs. Laura Crocker (Edmonton) and Geoff Walker (St. John’s).
PEI’s Sabrina Smith and Kyle Holland finished play with a 3-4 win-loss record, winning their last three games, including a victory over a pre-tournament favourite duo, Stefanie Lawton and Steve Laycock.
The winning team will earn the right to represent Canada at the 2016 World Mixed Doubles Championship, April 16-23 in Karlstad, Sweden.
Live scoring is available at http://www.curling.ca/scoreboard/#!/competitions/2057