By Nathan Kanter

Koe sneaks past Thomas to highlight draw 3

Jan 4, 2017 | 2:09 PM

The Meridian Canadian Open’s third draw was highlighted by a long battle between Calgary’s Kevin Koe and Edmonton’s Charley Thomas, which ended in a 7-6 extra end win for Koe.

It was by far the longest game of the third draw, and ended when Koe picked up a steal because of a guard he set up on his last rock.

“The score might not indicate it but we played solid,” Koe said after the win. “We got a little fortunate in the extra end, any time you steal, you’re a little fortunate…[but] we played well that game and just a couple costly shots here and there.

“It’s always a little tricky you’re first time on the ice but now that we’ve had a game under our belt I think we’ll be good playing tonight.”

Koe will play Kingston’s Greg Balsdon tonight, who won his opening night game last night over John Epping 7-4.

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In other third draw action, Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie defeated Kyle Smith of Scotland 5-4. Jacobs, an Olympic gold medalist for Canada, won the last Grand Slam of Curling event in his hometown last month.

Jacobs’ advances to the ‘A’ bracket, where he will face off against Brad Gushue tonight at 6:30 p.m. Gushue defeated Bruce Korte Tuesday night 8-7 in an extra end.

Sweden’s Niklas Edin, who is one of the favourites of the tournament, also pulled out a win Wednesday morning, 4-3 over Heath McCormick of Blaine, U.S.

Edin said curling in Saskatchewan is always fun, and that although the cold isn’t something that can be ignored, his experience thus far has been nothing but positive.

“It’s nice to be back,” Edin said. “It’s a really big curling province. We love to be back in the [mid-west] areas of Canada where curling is really big and you get a [big] crowd already now for the early draws, so that’s great to see. The ice is really good too. Good venue and good hotel so everything is good so far.”

Edin’s team took a couple of weeks off over the Christmas break and said the biggest thing for his team is to get reaccustomed to the speed of the game. 

“I think [over Christmas] we needed to step back a bit to get some motivation back,” Edin said. “Now it’s more about getting into the speed of the game so to speak and make the right calls and think fast, play fast, but still no mistakes. We’ve got a couple games probably until we’re back on top.”

At the moment Edin’s opponent in the ‘A’ bracket is unclear, but he will play tonight at 6:30 p.m.

The two women’s games were both won by a 5-4 score, Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque over Lethbridge’s Casey Scheidegger, and Winnipeg’s Michelle Englot over Calgary’s Chelsea Carey.

Nathan Kanter is a reporter for battlefordsNOW. He can be reached at Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11