KINDERSLEY -- A pair of Friday wins have propelled Saskatoon’s Dustin Kalthoff into a playoff spot at the SaskTel Tankard in Kindersley.
Kalthoff and his Nutana rink of third Joshua Heidt and lead Mat Ring were one of three teams to lock down a Page Playoff berth on the second-last day of round robin competition, improving to 5-2 and joining Swift Current’s Steve Laycock and Saskatoon’s Rylan Kleiter as qualifiers.
Kalthoff was the only one of the three to play two games on Friday, as they defeated Saskatoon’s Jason Jacobson 8-2 in seven ends in the morning draw and followed up with a 7-4 win over Martensville’s Dylan Derksen in the afternoon.
Laycock and his rink of third Shaun Meachem, second Chris Haichert and lead Brayden Grindheim remain atop the standings with a 6-1 record, taking a 5-4 victory over Regina’s Kelly Knapp in their lone game Friday morning.
Kleiter and his Nutana foursome of third Josh Mattern, second Matthew Hall and lead Trever Johnston are tied with Kalthoff at 5-2 after downing Knapp 8-5 in the afternoon draw.
Other results from the morning games saw Langenburg’s Charley Thomas defeat Saskatoon’s Brad Moser and Martensville’s Logan Ede take a 7-4 win over Derksen.
Thomas defeated Ede 7-5 and Jacobson downed Moser 13-4 in the other afternoon contests.
Standings heading into the final round robin games Saturday afternoon are as follows:
Steve Laycock 6-1
Dustin Kalthoff 5-2
Rylan Kleiter 5-2
Kelly Knapp 4-3
Charley Thomas 3-4
Jason Jacobson 3-4
Dylan Derksen 3-4
Logan Ede 2-6
Brad Moser 1-6
Knapp has the inside track on the fourth and final playoff spot, with a win over Jacobson during the 2 p.m. draw giving him the berth. A Knapp loss and all sorts of tiebreakers could come into play, pending the results of the other teams at 3-4. Other games see Kleiter taking on Derksen, Kalthoff playing Thomas and Moser facing Laycock.
Be sure to keep an eye on www.curlsask.ca for regular updates as the provincial men’s curling championship continues.
