Team Einarson beats Team Sinclair in Friday night curling action

In a back and forth match, Einarson used the hammer in the last end to seal up the victory

Team Einarson from left to right: Skip Kerri Einarson, third Selena Kaatz, second Liz Fyfe, and lead Kristin MacCuish. Team Einarson beat Team Sinclair in Draw 13 Friday night action at the Players' Championship hosted at Ryerson's Mattamy Athletic Centre. Player's Championship

Wild vs. Jets wasn’t the only Minnesota and Winnipeg matchup on the ice Friday night.

On sheet B at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, in Toronto, Team Einarson (WPG) defeated Team Sinclair (MN) by a score of 7-6, in the women’s draw of the Grand Slam of Curling, Player’s Championship.

With the win Team Einarson clinched their spot in the playoffs and were to play in the quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon, a position Team Sinclair had already earned.

It was a sub-par performance for both skips. Skip Jamie Sinclair curled 77 per cent with the red stones while skip Kerri Einarson curled 78 per cent with the yellow.

Lead curler Kristin MacCuish of Team Einarson curled 82 per cent.

Second curler Vicky Persinger of Team Sinclair curled 87 per cent.

It was a back-and-forth match that saw the two teams tied at six after seven ends. With hammer in the eighth end skip Einarson made no mistake, she forced Sinclair to attempt a tough double take-out, which she was not able to do, sealing the victory.

Einarson (3-2) got her team on the board first after she threw an in-curl, past multiple guards, to lay two stones following an errant throw by opposing skip Jamie Sinclair.

Sinclair (3-2) from Blaine, Minnesota, responded with two points in the second end. With hammer, Sinclair hit the lone yellow stone from the house to lay two red stones, evening up the score 2-2.

The Manitoban skip capitalized on missed throws in the fifth end by Team Sinclair scoring three to make it 6-4. Sinclair was able to bounce back scoring two in the following end to tie the game.

There was plenty of action on other sheets.

It was early handshakes as Team Tirinzoni (2-3), backed by loud Swiss fans with a cowbell on hand, beat Team Fujisawa (2-3) by a score of 8-2 after seven ends.

A Hasselborg-less Team Hasselborg (4-1) beat Team Carey (1-4) in convincing fashion, 7-3 after six ends.

Team Muirhead (4-1) beat Team Homan (0-5) 8-3 ending the Canadian team’s less than stellar tournament.

Hometown favourites Team Epping (3-3) beat Team Shuster (2-4) in a tiebreaker 6-3 after seven ends, much to the delight of the crowd.

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Posted: Apr 14 2018 3:24 pm
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