Homan advances to final at Canada Cup after win over Olympic-champion Jones

CAMROSE, Alta. – Ottawa’s Rachel Homan advanced to the final at the Canada Cup curling tournament after finishing Friday’s round-robin play with a 5-1 record.

Homan came from behind to defeat Olympic champion Jennifer Jones 9-4 in both skips’ last match of the night.

Winnipeg’s Jones jumped out to an early 4-0 lead before Homan came back in the third end and scored nine straight points to earn the win.

“We just had to erase what had happened,” Homan said after giving up deuces to Jones in the first two ends. “We needed to make sure we were making our shots the next end … you look at the scoreboard it’s a little overwhelming. We’re excited we got to the final of the Canada Cup, we’ve never (done) that before.”

In the night’s other women’s draws, Heather Nedohin of Sherwood, Park, Alta., slipped past Sherry Middaugh of Coldwater, Ont. 7-4.

Homan will play in Sunday’s final, against either Nedohin or Val Sweeting of Edmonton, who will meet in Saturday’s semifinal after finishing preliminary play 4-2. Jones and Saskatoon’s Sherry Anderson are out of the tournament with 3-3 records.

Homan lost for the first time at the tournament in the afternoon draw Friday — 8-3 to Anderson.

On the men’s side of the late draw, Calgary’s Kevin Koe scored seven straight in the final four ends to beat Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., 10-4, Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen defeated the Canada rink skipped by Calgary’s John Morris 7-4, and Jim Cotter of Vernon, B.C., slipped past Glenn Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont., 6-4.

Howard (4-2) and McEwen (4-2) will play each other in the semifinal with Olympic champion Brad Jacobs (4-2) of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., advancing straight to Sunday’s final due to their results against each other.

Koe and Gushue finished at 3-3 while Cotter was 2-4. Morris was 1-5.

Jacobs and Jones both escaped with extra-end victories in the morning draw.

Jacobs got the win when McEwen came up short with his last-rock draw attempt to allow Jacobs to steal two in the 11th for a critical 7-5 win. Jacobs followed that up by downing Morris 11-6 in the afternoon.

Anderson was also short with her last-rock draw and Jones didn’t need to throw her final stone in a 7-6 victory.

In the other morning games, Gushue beat Cotter 5-4, and Sweeting scored deuces in the sixth and 10th ends to beat Allison Flaxey of Listowel, Ont., 8-5. Flaxey (1-5) won her first match of the tournament in the afternoon draw, edging Nedohin 6-4.