News National

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. — Christmas arrived early for Brad Jacobs and Kerri Einarson with the two receiving big-time presents at the Boost National.

Following the Canada Cup, where direct berths to the Olympic Trials were up for grabs, it was back to the tour and the points chase this past weekend for teams. The Boost National offered an excellent opportunity for teams that fell short at the Canada Cup to leave their mark.

The hometown hero Jacobs delivered on his promise to provide a good show and capped it with his second championship in the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling series by defeating Reid Carruthers 4-2 for the title. Einarson entered as an underdog pick to win — especially after losing 7-1 to Silvana Tirinzoni in her first game -– but by the end had built up steam, never tasting defeat again and charged right through to her first career Grand Slam title. Einarson avenged the earlier defeat by topping Tirinzoni 5-3 in Sunday’s final.

1st End: That’s more like it for Jacobs

Jacobs’s Sault Ste. Marie squad was disappointed with how things went last season as they didn’t win a single tour event. They turned that page with a victory in Saskatoon earlier this season and a runner-up finish at the WFG Masters in October showed the team was back in business.

It was a thrilling title path too. Jacobs needed to score three in the eighth end to edge John Morris 6-5 during the quarterfinals and counted another trey coming home to slip past Brad Gushue 5-3 in the semis. That set up a heavyweight tilt against the hottest team of the week, Reid Carruthers, who was fresh off of winning the Canada Cup and rolling through the Boost National at 6-0.

There was no come-from-behind score in the final end this time as Jacobs stole a one-point lead in the sixth and used sound strategy to plot his rocks in eight and force Carruthers to make a tricky final shot that didn’t work out, giving up another point, to ice the game.

It was a huge win for Team Jacobs locking down 81.456 points towards the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS). They look to make it through the front door to qualify for next year’s Olympic Trials with the overall goal of repeating their gold medal performance from the Sochi Winter Games.

Jacobs can now start planning to defend the National title on home ice as the event will return to Sault Ste. Marie next season.

2nd End: Carruthers closed calendar with two great weeks

Carruthers was somewhat disappointed his team doesn’t have another event coming up this week.

A Canada Cup title win plus an appearance in the Boost National final had Carruthers declaring this his best December of curling.

The Winnipeg team could have taken it easy following the grinding week to clinch an Olympic Trials spot. Instead they intended on keeping the momentum going and built a six-game winning streak heading into the championship game against Jacobs.

They’ve cashed in big on tour and now look to cash in big in Las Vegas with their Canada Cup win also earning them a spot in the Continental Cup taking place next month in Sin City.

3rd End: Einarson boosts Olympic Trials chances

Einarson has also had an impressive back-to-back run that pretty much saved her season.

Her East St. Paul, Man., team was ranked 87th on the World Curling Tour’s year-to-date standings with just 23.029 points. A trip to the Canada Cup semifinal one week followed up with the Boost National title Sunday has rocketed them all the way up into 12th with 155.596 points.

That now has them in consideration for the WestJet Players’ Championship (top 12 on the YTD in March receive invites) plus the Boost National victory clinches them a spot in the Humpty’s Champions Cup. With accumulating points being so key this season towards qualifying for the Olympic Trials, Einarson couldn’t have picked a better time to pick it up.

They’re also the third team to break through and win their first Grand Slam trophy this season following Allison Flaxey and Niklas Edin’s wins at the WFG Masters. Tirinzoni was a first-timer last season capturing the inaugural Tour Challenge Tier 1 trophy while Einarson coincidentally took the Tier 2 title.

It’s also impressive to think two years ago Einarson was just a fan at the 2014 Masters and appeared in Pete on the Street (hint: she’s the “double girl”). Now she’s competing and winning these events as her team continues to make giant strides to prove they belong among the world’s best.

4th End: Overton-Clapham the super spare yet again

If you ever need a spare, you should have Cathy Overton-Clapham’s number on speed dial.

“Cathy O” has won two Grand Slam titles as a sub during the previous couple seasons — capturing the 2014 Masters with Val Sweeting and the 2016 Players’ Championship with Eve Muirhead — and almost made it 3-for-3 reaching the Boost National final with Tirinzoni.

Overton-Clapham was filling in for third Manuela Siegrist, who is out with a knee injury. It’s unknown what her status will be for next month’s Meridian Canadian Open, but there’s a good bet if Tirinzoni needs someone to pinch-hit off the bench again, it’ll be Overton-Clapham.

5th End: McCarville makes most of opportunity

Krista McCarville was stoked to receive the sponsor’s exemption spot for the women’s division and getting the chance to play in her home province.

It didn’t start off too great for the Scotties silver medallist as she had to face defending champion Rachel Homan and was trounced 8-2.

The Thunder Bay, Ont., team was able to flip the script remarkably winning three straight against Flaxey, Scotties winner Chelsea Carey and Northern Ontario rival Tracy Fleury to qualify for the playoffs and set up a rematch against Homan in the quarterfinals. McCarville scored three late to stun Homan and ran her out of rocks in eight to win 8-5.

McCarville’s run came to an unfortunate end giving up a steal in the eighth to fall to Tirinzoni during the semis, however, it was quite the impressive run just for them to even get to that point and they should be able to look at the big picture to take positives away from the experience.

6th End: School of hard knocks

The sponsor’s exemption on the men’s side went to 18-year-old Tanner Horgan of Sudbury, Ont. The Canadian junior silver medallist was a wild card as who knew how his young crew would fare against the top men’s teams in the world.

Horgan got roughed up in his first three games, but proved he could hang with the best by defeating Steve Laycock in his final round-robin game. Although Laycock’s last rock of the extra end picked to give up a steal, Horgan did manage to put his team into a position where they could swipe the victory. Horgan rallied scoring two in the eighth to force the extra stanza and also set up a pair for Laycock to look at on the final stone of the game.

The experience Horgan has gained playing against the likes of Gushue and Jacobs cannot be measured as his team is still learning. Playing against the No. 1 ranked team in the world in Gushue and the reigning Olympic champ Jacobs under high-pressure situations can only help Horgan’s growth regardless of what the scoreboard says.

7th End: Homan qualifies 18th straight

Ottawa’s Rachel Homan advanced to the playoffs for the 18th time, in 18 appearances, in the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling series.

That’s a jaw-dropping stat anyway you look at it as every team tends to have at least one bad week and misses out on qualifying. Not so for Team Homan, who has been nothing but consistent at the elite level.

8th End: Gushue returns to reach semifinals

Welcome back, Brad. The defending men’s champ made his season debut at the Boost National returning from a hip/groin issue that kept him out of the lineup for his team’s first eight events of the year.

Gushue admitted he’s not quite 100 percent but felt good enough to play, which was coincidentally also how he felt at the National last year following his scary on-ice fall at the Masters.

The St. John’s, N.L., team went 4-0 through round-robin play, reaching the playoffs for the ninth time this year, and defeated their sometimes spare Charley Thomas in the quarterfinals. While it may have seemed weird to play against someone who just the week prior was helping you try to earn an Olympic Trials spot, it was all business on the ice for Team Gushue.

A Christmas break should assist in the healing process, both physically and mentally, with Gushue knowing he’s not missing out on any of the action.

Extra End: Next up — Meridian Canadian Open

The Boost National wrapped up the 2016 portion of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling schedule. We’re off to North Battleford, Sask., right after New Year’s Day for the Meridian Canadian Open running Jan. 3-8 at the Civic Centre.

Invites are out now, so expect an announcement of teams very shortly.