KAMLOOPS, February 27…Edmonton’s Kevin Koe capped a perfect first day at the Strauss Canada Cup by edging Pat Simmons of Davidson, Saskatchewan, 6-5 in the Wednesday afternoon draw.

Combined with his earlier 8-3 victory over Brad Gushue of S. John’s, Koe, who won the 2000 Canadian Mixed, now sits in top spot in Pool A.  Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton is at 1-0, while Edmonton’s Kevin Martin and Simmons are now 1-1.  Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen is 0-2 after losing to Martin, a two-time Cup winner, 10-4 in Draw 3.

On the women’s side, Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones continued her white-hot streak, blasting Janet Harvey, 8-3 to move to 2-0 in Section A.  Her team has now won 10 games in a row, eight at the recent Scotties Tournament of Hearts, where she earned a second Canadian women’s curling championship title, and her two games today.   Jones had opened with an 8-5 decision over Sherry Anderson of Saskatoon.

Joining her at 2-0 is Calgary’s Cheryl Bernard, who edged 2006 Cup winner Cathy King of Edmonton, 10-9, taking three in the 10th end for the wild win.   Bernard also beat Harvey in Draw 2, 6-3.  Anderson is now at 1-1, after clipping Stefanie Lawton of Saskatoon, 7-6 in an extra end, while King and Harvey are winless at 0-2.

In Section B, Calgary’s Shannon Kleibrink and Kelowna’s Kelly Scott are both 1-0, with another draw scheduled for Wednesday evening at 8:30 pm PT.

Draws on Thursday are at 8:30 am, 1:30 pm and 7:00 pm, with Friday’s games at 8:30 am, 1:30 pm and 6:00 pm, prior to the playoffs.

The Cup teams are seeded into two five-team groups and play a round robin within the group plus a crossover game against an opponent in the other group.  The top two in each pool then advance to a crossover Page Playoff system, whereby the group winners meet in one game (winner to final, loser to semi-final), while the group runners-up meet in another game (winner to semi-final, loser eliminated).

CBC-TV will televise the 1 vs 1 Page Playoff games on Saturday, March 1 and the women’s and men’s finals on Sunday, March 2, in a special five-hour telecast.   CurlTV (www.curltv.com) is also providing event coverage to its subscribers.

There’s plenty on the line at the Strauss this year…not only do the winning teams get $25,000 each, but more importantly, they also become part of the pool of 16 men’s and 16 women’s teams eligible for the 2009 Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials, which will determine Canada’s representatives for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

The winners also get berths into the 2008 Continental Cup in Camrose, Alberta as members of Team North America and return as the defending Canada Cup champions when the event moves to Yorkton, Saskatchewan next year.  

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