Team Fleury stays perfect at Canada Cup with win over Team Carey

Tracy Fleury downed Chelsea Carey 7-1 on Wednesday night to improve to 2-0 at the Canada Cup while snapping a string of previous bad starts the tournament.

Fluery, of East St. Paul, Man., had skipped her teams to a combined 3-9 record in her two previous appearances at the Canada Cup.

Fleury put up a four-spot in the opening end, the first of four big scores posted during the draw. There was also one five-ender.

"It kinda helped give us some momentum for the game," said Fleury, whose team is rounded out by vice-skip Selena Njegovan, second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish.

Team Casey Scheidegger with fill-in skip Cheryl Bernard also improved to 2-0 with a 7-1 win over Kerri Einarson (1-1). Bernard is filling in at skip for Scheidegger, who had a baby boy this week.

Edmonton's Brendan Bottcher and Calgary's Kevin Koe led the men's standings at 2-0 after the first day of competition.

Bottcher beat the 0-2 Glenn Howard 9-3 in the night draw while Koe upended Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., skip Brad Jacobs (1-1) 11-7.

Toronto's John Epping (1-1) doubled up Regina's Matt Dunstone (0-2) 8-4.

The finals are set for Sunday.

Vying for spots at Olympic Trials

There will be nine spots available in the men's draw at the Olympic Trials — also known as the Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings — in late 2021 at Saskatoon.

Next year's Canada Cup winner will also get a spot, as will the winners of the next two national championships. Canadian ranking positions will be used to determine three entries and the Road to the Roar Pre-Trials qualifier will determine the last two spots.

The same qualification setup will be used for the nine-team women's field at the Trials. Koe and Homan were victorious at the 2017 Trials in Ottawa but neither team reached the Olympic podium.

The men's and women's champions at this Canada Cup will earn $40,000 per team and also lock up spots in the Jan. 9-12 Continental Cup in London, Ont.