Einarson, Wrana qualify for Co-op Invitational playoffs - The Grand Slam of Curling

VICTORIA — Playoffs! It's going down Saturday in the GSOC Co-op Invitational at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. Weekend and day passes, plus single draw tickets, are available. Visit GSOCtickets.com for more information. Can't make it to the arena? See below for broadcast details and check our full broadcast schedule so you never miss a moment. Saturday's featured games Canada's Team Kerri Einarson will face Japan's Team Miyu Ueno in the women's quarterfinals (3 p.m. ET / Noon PT). The crew from Gimli, Manitoba, will hold the hammer to start. Einarson finished the preliminary round at 3-1 to take the No. 2 seed, but her lone loss was against Ueno on Wednesday. It's an all-Canadian clash, and a Battle of Alberta no less, between Calgary's Team Brad Jacobs and Edmonton's Team Brendan Bottcher in the men's quarterfinals (7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT). Jacobs was victorious 6-3 when they faced Wednesday in the preliminary round. "They've had a good season," Team Jacobs third Marc Kennedy said after the win. "That's a good team. They're going to be up there with the best of the Canadian teams. ... It was a good test for us. We were excited to come here and play.

Brad Jacobs and Oskar Eriksson met Friday for the first time since their Olympic controversy. But this time, there was no drama, just a beatdown.

By Jonathan Brazeau VICTORIA — It's the final day of the preliminary round in the GSOC Co-op Invitational at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. Who will advance to the playoffs? Full-event, weekend and day passes plus single draw tickets are available. Visit GSOCtickets.com for more information. Can't make it to the arena? See below for broadcast details and check our full broadcast schedule so you never miss a moment. Friday's featured games The top two men's teams in the world rankings collide as Switzerland's Team Yannick Schwaller and Scotland's Team Grant Hardie face in Draw 14 (3 p.m. ET / Noon PT). World No. 1 Schwaller (3-0, eight points) will look to remain undefeated, while world No. 2 Hardie (2-1, five points) needs a victory to stay ahead of the logjam at two wins. Schwaller defeated Hardie 8-2 in the Euro Super Series final in August. This is Hardie's first Grand Slam as a skip since his series debut at the 2017 Champions Cup, before joining Bruce Mouat and forming a dynasty back-end pairing. Hardie's first-ever game in that event was an 8-1 loss to Peter de Cruz's team, featuring Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel at fourth stones. "Crazy.

By Jonathan Brazeau VICTORIA — Sparks and fist pumps were flying when Matt Dunstone delivered his final shot against Danny Casper, scoring two points for an intense 8-7 win Thursday at the GSOC Co-op Invitational. Dunstone improved to a 2-1 record (six points) in the season’s first Grand Slam of Curling tournament at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. With four seconds left on his thinking time clock, Dunstone nailed the soft bump into the quarry to score the winning deuce that fired up the team and the crowd. "Awesome. That was a game I thought we deserved to win, for sure," Dunstone said. "A bad pick in six, and then I had a bad miss on my last in seven to let him back into it. But to come back with a big shot, fun way to end it. " As Dunstone alluded to, hits and misses highlighted the earlier stages of the match. Casper misfired a runback in the first end to put two points in Dunstone's pocket with one shot to go; however, the Winnipeg skip couldn't add a third rock to the count, tapping and rolling too far. That lost point came back to hurt. Casper chiselled out Dunstone’s shot rock in the second to score three points and take the lead as the back-and-forth chase was on.