SUMMERSIDE – The playoff picture is slowly taking shape at the 2017 Home Hardware Road to the Roar Pre-Trials curling event, but it won’t be fully finalized until late Saturday afternoon.
Two tiebreakers began at Eastlink Arena on Friday at 11:30 p.m., and three more were played on Saturday at 7:30 a.m. Two more tiebreakers are needed before the complete playoff picture is cleared up.
Nadine Scotland will face Shannon Birchard at 12:30 p.m., with the winner earning the third and final playoff spot in the women’s Pool A. At 3:30 p.m., Dayna Deruelle takes on Greg Balsdon for the third place in the men’s Pool B.
The top three teams in each pool advance to the playoff round.
The first- and second-place teams in each pool will meet in semifinals on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. All four of those teams have double life, with the winners meeting in a game that will decide one of the two berths for each the men and women in the Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings Olympic qualifying event in Ottawa next month.
The losers of these semifinal games will still be alive while the third-place teams have no room for error.
The men’s semifinals feature Glenn Howard taking on Brendan Bottcher and Charley Thomas meeting John Morris. On the women’s side, it’s Julie Tippin taking on Briane Meilleur and Kelsey Rocque facing Krista McCarville.
The two women’s winners will meet on Saturday at 7 p.m., and the men’s winners will clash Sunday at 9 a.m.
Tiebreakers
In Saturday’s 7:30 a.m. draw, Deruelle outlasted William Lyburn 7-5, Jason Gunnlaugson defeated Jamie Murphy 6-4 and Sherry Middaugh prevailed 6-5 over Kerri Einarson.
