News Elite 10

PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. — It’s a different kind of March Madness taking place at the Princess Auto Elite 10.

Following two days and seven draws of round-robin action, six teams have made it through to the playoff round where a new Elite 10 champion will be crowned. Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., was unable to continue his title defence falling short of a tiebreaker by a single point.

If your NCAA Tournament bracket has already busted, you can start fresh with our Princess Auto Elite 10 bracket.

Watch the Princess Auto Elite 10 quarterfinals Saturday at Noon ET on Sportsnet ONE followed by the semifinals at 4 p.m. ET on Sportsnet. Stream online with Sportsnet NOW (Canada) or gsoc.yaretv.com (international)

– Former teammates Reid Carruthers and Jeff Stoughton square off in the quarterfinals after wrapping up round-robin play. Carruthers stole three consecutive times to end the match and take a 2-up victory over Stoughton’s Elite 10 Select crew featuring David Nedohin, Nolan Thiessen and Jamie Korab. Coincidentally, the previous time the series was at the Civic Centre, Stoughton and Carruthers won a Grand Slam title together capturing the National in January 2013. Carruthers rebounded from a slow start this time to scrape out two wins Friday and finish with six points to clip Gushue out of the playoff picture. Stoughton was on a roll with three regulation wins for nine points before running into Carruthers.

– The winner of the Stoughton-Carruthers clash meets John Morris and his team from Vernon, B.C., in the semifinals. Morris’s might was tested Friday with three games on the schedule and he managed to pull out two regulation wins in order to finish with nine points. Morris gets some much-needed rest now with a bye as the No. 2 seed thanks to a better cumulative pre-game draw-to-the-button score than Stoughton.

– Calgary’s Kevin Koe takes on Peter de Cruz of Switzerland in the other quarterfinal. Like the Carruthers-Stoughton tilt, this one is also a rematch from the round robin. De Cruz edged out Koe in a draw-to-the-button shootout during the opening draw Thursday and Round 2 should come down to the wire again. It’s already special for de Cruz as he qualified for the playoffs at a Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event for the first time, playing his 11th tournament in the series. Koe earned wins Friday over Toronto’s John Epping and Niklas Edin of Sweden in back-to-back draws to qualify.

– The victor out of the Koe-De Cruz game goes up against No. 1 seed Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Jacobs, this season’s Boost National champ, topped the table with 10 points (out of a possible 12) earning three regulation wins (including one over Koe) and picked up a single point in his shootout loss to de Cruz. Jacobs was a perfect 100 percent in his final round robin game against Epping.