Two of the three rinks representing the territory at the Canadian masters event still have a shot at the title of national champion.

The Yukon men’s team (2-3), led by George Hilderman, qualified for championship pool play last night, despite a 9-6 loss to New Brunswick’s Brian Mackin.

The team – which includes Gord Zealand (third), Clarence Jack (second) and Richard Trimble (lead) – finished ahead of Saskatchewan (1-4) and Quebec (0-5) to take fourth in Pool A.

The teams that qualified for championship play will now cross-over to play the top four rinks from the opposing pool with the best foursomes heading into the semifinals and championship games this weekend.

In women’s play, the host team led by Pat Banks (1-4) also squeezed into the championship pool by the slimmest of margins.

Down 5-2 to New Brunswick heading into the seventh end of their final game in the round robin last night, the host team caught fire, scoring a deuce in the seventh and stealing a single in the eighth to tie things up at 5-5 and force extras.

Banks managed to steal a single in the extra end against Monique Taylor for a 6-5 win, vaulting the hosts into a tie for fourth in their pool with New Brunswick and Saskatchewan.

As there are no tiebreaker games in masters curling, it came down to a cumulative total of shots to the button – won by the hosts.

“Before each game, one member of each team draws to the button,” Banks explained. “Each player has to do it once during competition. Five draws meant one player had an additional draw. The worst throw for each team is thrown out and the rest are accumulated. Lowest score wins.”

The cumulative draws by Banks, Marg White (third), Val Whelan (second) and Lorraine Stick (lead) beat out the efforts of New Brunswick and the 2014 masters women’s champions from Saskatchewan, led by Merle Kopach.

Meanwhile, Ellen Johnson’s Yukon women’s rink went winless through its first five games and will play on in hopes of improving the Yukon’s ranking for the 2016 masters championship in Nova Scotia.