Team Yukon kept its playoff hopes alive this morning with a 12-7 win over Prince Edward Island at the Tim Hortons Brier curling championships pre-qualifying tournament in St. John’s N.L.

With the win, the Yukon rink of skip Craig Kochan, fourth Jon Solberg, vice-skip Ray Mikkelsen, lead Darrin Fredrickson, alternate Wade Scoffin and coach Larry Snow remains in the running for the pre-qualification final Saturday morning with a 1-1 record.

The Yukon rink lost their first game Thursday afternoon against Nova Scotia’s Jamie Murphy, conceding 8-2 after eight ends.

This morning, the team turned their game around, stealing a point in the third, three in the seventh and two in the 10th to beat P.E.I.

“It was large,” said skip Kochan. “We knew coming out that if we won one of the first two, we still had a good chance. Now, I think the hardest part will [be] keeping our focus to play Nunavut.”

The final games of the four-team pre-qualifying round were expected to end this afternoon, with Yukon facing Nunavut (0-2) and a battle of the Maritimes with P.E.I (1-1) going against Nova Scotia (2-0).

If Nova Scotia wins, it will automatically qualify for Saturday afternoon’s pre-qualifying final and a shot at the final spot available in the 12-team main round-robin draw.

If Yukon beats Nunavut, they will also qualify for that final. However, if Nunavut wins, or if P.E.I. beats Nova Scotia, a tie-breaker game will take place Saturday morning.

This is the final year that either the Scotties or the Brier will feature pre-qualifying games, with all teams being represented in the main draw in 2018.

The Yukon team is a new-look rink with skip Kochan, who is from Mississauga playing for the team thanks to the Curling Canada residency policy, which allows one member of the team to reside outside the member association.

The newly formed Yukon team, which qualified for the national men’s championships at the Yukon Men’s Championships in January has a unique throwing order.

Vice-skip Mikkelsen throws second, while skip Kochan throws third. Fourth Solberg takes the final shots.