Saskatoon鈥檚 Steve Laycock gave his fans something to cheer about on Thursday night at the North Battleford Civic Centre.
After losing his first two games this week at the Pinty鈥檚 Grand Slam of Curling鈥檚 Meridian Canadian Open, Laycock staved off elimination from the tournament with a 9-1 win in six ends over American Heath McCormick in a 鈥楥鈥� event contest.
鈥淲e鈥檙e pretty much taking things one shot at a time right now,鈥� Laycock said. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 go out there and be of the mindset of thinking that we have to win a bunch of games in a row just to make the playoffs.
鈥淲e were able to get off to a pretty good start. We got the deuce to take an early lead, and we were able to capitalize on some unlucky breaks that they had.鈥�
Thursday night鈥檚 win was a nice improvement for the Nutana Curling Club foursome, as they struggled Wednesday in an 8-3 loss to Reid Carruthers of Winnipeg.
鈥淪coreboard wise, it looked like we were keeping things close in the first half, but we were making the full shots and leaving ourselves in tough situations,鈥� Laycock said.
鈥淭hat wasn鈥檛 the case tonight. We were a lot more comfortable with the ice and we鈥檙e starting to get things back on track.鈥�
Laycock will be back in action at 8:30 a.m. against Kingston鈥檚 Greg Balsdon, who fell to the 鈥楥鈥� event after a 5-4 loss to Brad Gushue of St. John鈥檚 on Thursday night.
Sudbury鈥檚 Tracy Fleury rebounded from a pair of tough of losses with an impressive win of her own in the 鈥楥鈥� event, as she cruised to an 8-2 triumph over Calgary鈥檚 Chelsea Carey, which knocked the reigning Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion out of the competition.
鈥淲e were able to make more shots in this one,鈥� Fleury said. 鈥淚n our first couple of games we were struggling with our execution, and that was something we were a lot stronger with today.
鈥淲e tried to forget about the two losses that we had and started fresh today. Overall, I think we did a really good job of that.鈥�
Elsewhere, John Morris and his Vernon, B.C. rink capped off a two-win day by defeating Winnipeg鈥檚 Reid Carruthers by a score of 6-3 in the 鈥楤鈥� event.
鈥淭hat was one of our best games of the entire year against Reid tonight,鈥� Morris, who calls the game and throws third stones for his rink while Jim Cotter throws fourth stones, said.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e been coming on strong over the last couple of years, so to play as we did against them says a lot for the character that we have on our team.鈥�
The other men鈥檚 鈥楤鈥� event game went to an extra-end as Winnipeg鈥檚 Mike McEwen came away with an 8-7 win over Brendan Bottcher.
Bottcher will now play in a 鈥楥鈥� event game at 8:30 a.m. Friday where he鈥檒l look to stave off elimination against John Epping of Toronto.
There will also be three women鈥檚 contests in the morning draw, one of which is a win or go home affair between two struggling teams as Ottawa鈥檚 Rachel Homan takes on Russia鈥檚 Anna Sidorova.
Over in the 鈥楤鈥� event, Sweden鈥檚 Anna Hasselborg will square off with Lethbridge鈥檚 Casey Scheidegger and Kelsey Rocque of Edmonton will battle Bingyu Wang鈥檚 rink from China.
