Calgary skip Crystal Webster shouts to her teammates during her 8-7 victory over Kelowna's Kelly Scott at the Canadian curling pre-trials on Thursday in Prince George, B.C.Calgary skip Crystal Webster shouts to her teammates during her 8-7 victory over Kelowna's Kelly Scott at the Canadian curling pre-trials on Thursday in Prince George, B.C. (Michael Burns/Canadian Press)

Pat Simmons almost completed a sweep of the top three seeds at the Olympic curling pre-trial men's event in Prince George, B.C.

Instead, No. 1 Jeff Stoughton held on to beat Simmons upstart rink and earn a spot at next month's Olympic curling trials.

Stoughton scored one in the extra 11th end to beat Simmons 8-7 in the A bracket final Thursday, giving his Winnipeg rink a chance to represent Canada at the 2010 Olympics.

After knocking off No. 2 Wayne Middaugh and No. 3 Brad Gushue, Simmons came up just short in his bid to play giant killer for a third straight time.

But the Davidson, Sask., curler is not done yet. He moves on to the B bracket and can book a place in Edmonton by winning his next two matches.

His next match is in the B semifinal, where he'll face Toronto's Middaugh again. Middaugh advanced with a 6-4 win over Bob Ursel, sending the Kelowna, B.C., skip to the C bracket.

Webster books her ticket to Edmonton

Calgary's Crystal Webster advanced to next month's Olympic curling trials with a 9-7 victory over Kelly Scott of Kelowna, B.C., on Thursday.

Webster, the women's seventh seed, is the only team to go undefeated in the pre-trials competition, earning victories over Amber Holland of Kronau, Sask., Sherry Middaugh of Coldwater, Ont., and Ottawa's Rachel Homan to reach the A final.

There, she struck quickly against the top-ranked Scott rink, scoring four with the hammer in the opening end. Scott, the 2007 world champion, responded with two in the second, and singles in the third and fourth ends to tie the game.

The teams traded deuces in the fifth and sixth ends, and single points in the seventh and eighth. After a blank in the ninth end, Webster picked Kelly's rock out of the house in the 10th end to score the deciding two points.

Scott dropped to the B side, where she'll face Quebec's Marie-France Larouche in a semifinal match. Holland will face Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay, Ont., in the other semifinal, with the winners squaring off to determine the second entrant into the Olympic trials held next month in Edmonton.

Two additional teams will qualify out of the C bracket.