Koe, Homan make it 3 Canadian rinks in Curling World Cup finals
Mixed doubles team of Laura Walker, Kirk Muyres advanced Friday
Canada will have three teams in the finals at the inaugural World Cup of Curling after Kevin Koe and Rachel Homan prevailed on Saturday in Suzhou, China.
Edmonton's Laura Walker and Kirk Muyres secured a spot in mixed doubles on Friday with a 6-3 victory over Russia's Maria Komarova and Daniil Goryachev to improve their record to 5-1.
They will face Americans Sarah Anderson and Korey Dropkin in the final on Saturday at 10:30 p.m. ET.
Koe defeated Masaki Iwai 12-4 at the Suzhou Sports Center to finish atop Pool B at 5-1.
He clinched a berth in Sunday's final at 4 a.m. ET against Norway's Steffen Walstad (5-1) when Scotland's Bruce Mouat (4-2) lost 6-5 to Peter De Cruz of Switzerland in the final round-robin draw.
Koe's rink of third B.J. Neufeld, second Colton Flasch and lead Ben Hebert struck early, scoring three points in the first end.
After Iwai (0-6) answered with a pair in the second, Koe broke open the game with five points in the third end and four in the fourth.
Homan capped the women's round-robin with an 8-2 win over American Nina Roth to finish at 5-1. Trailing 2-1 after three ends, the Canadian pulled away with scores of two in each of the subsequent three ends before adding a single in the seventh.
Watch highlights from Canada's 8-2 win:
Sweden's Anna Hasselborg (5-1) advanced from Pool A and will battle Homan Sunday morning just after midnight ET.
$20,000 US top prize
The inaugural World Cup features four tournaments of team and mixed doubles competition involving the top curling countries in the world. Each country determines its representatives for each leg.
The winning men's and women's teams in China will each take home $20,000 US, plus an additional $1,500 for every round-robin victory. The winner of the mixed doubles competition gets $10,000, plus an additional $750 for each round-robin win.
The second stop is Dec. 5-9 in Omaha, Neb., followed by the third in Jonkoping, Sweden, from Jan. 30 to Feb. 3.
The grand final May 8-12 in Beijing will include winning teams from the previous three stops.
With files from The Canadian Press