Saskatchewan's Team Dunstone showed some pluck despite their position against the top ranked team, while Team Epping stalled out for the second straight game on Thursday in draw 5 of the Home Hardware Canada Cup in Affinity Place.

Dunstone nearly stole one from the undefeated Team Jacobs in the first end, but blanked instead. Jacobs picked up a point in the second, after which Dunstone grabbed two through the third and fourth to take a 2-1 lead. Trading a pair of points through the fifth and sixth ends, Dunstone regained a 4-3 lead heading into the seventh. Jacobs jumped back on top 5-4 but Dunstone still wouldn`t go down easy. Several well placed shots, however, couldn`t prevail against Jacobs, and Dunstone called it quits after nine ends, 7-4, for his third loss of the event. Jacobs remains perfect after four draws.

Carey calls directions to her sweepers during draw 5.

``It was kind of a must-win game, and we just came out flat again," expressed a frustrated Matt Dunstone after the loss, "We're not making anything look easy out there. We've got a game in two and a half hours, and if we still dwell on it, it's going to be the same results. We've just got to figure it out moving forward and try and have a little bit more fun out there."

He added that they would attempt to make some adjustments to their big weight shots, stating that they're 'just not feeling those out'.

Bottcher jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first end over the second place Gushue, who cut the advantage to one by the fourth. However, Bottcher had stretched to a 6-3 lead by five ends before Gushue tied it up in the seventh. Bottcher jumped back in front by two in the eighth and held on for a 9-8 win. 

Team Koe scored three in the first end and added two in the fourth to take a 5-1 lead, then continued to build on top of a struggling Team Epping. After six ends they had a dominating 6-2 lead, though Epping managed to find two points to cut the advantage in half in the seventh. Koe maintained the lead to the end, however, for an 8-6 finish.

"Things are going well. That's two wins in a row for us, we know the ice now, so I think we're on the move up," said Koe's second, Colton Flasch, "We play again right away...we'll just keep doing what we're doing. We're throwing the rock really well and we're positioning everything perfectly so just keep doing what we're doing and things'll be good."

Teams Flaxey and Carey traded chances and points through a defensive five ends, after which the scoreboard saw Carey up 3-2. She added to it with a pair of back to back two-point ends to go up 5-2 by the seventh. However, Flaxey found some momentum with four points in the ninth to get close, before Carey sealed her second straight win of the event with two points to win 7-5 and improve to .500.

"We weren't that far off yesterday, but we were just missing things and we were doing it the wrong way, she stated, relieved, "Today we just felt we had a better handle on the draw weight from both the thrower and sweeper standpoint, I felt better about putting the broom down. It was just like we needed to shake a little bit of rust off or something, and today we were back to more of our normal self. We felt a lot more confident, and that leads to a lot more shots."

Darcy Robertson watches her shot during draw 5.

Darcy Robertson and her crew didn't score until the third end, where they found two followed by another point in the third to hold a 3-2 edge over the winless Walker. The latter kept the difference close, though still down by one until the eighth end where they knotted the score at four. It remained close until the end, when Walker surprised Robertson with four points in the tenth end for an 8-5 victory, her first of the tournament.

Draw 6 gets under way at 7:00 PM Thursday in Affinity Place, as Carruthers takes on Koe, Dunstone plays Bottcher, Robertson plays Einarson, Homan goes up against Jones and Flaxey takes on Scheidegger.