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Reigning Olympic champ Brad Jacobs is looking to take care of some unfinished business on home ice this season.

Jacobs and his crew from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., are pumped to play in the Boost National, the third Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event of 2016-17, returning to the Essar Centre running Dec. 6-11.

The team of Jacobs, third Ryan Fry, second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden finished runner-up when Sault Ste. Marie hosted the event in 2014 and they’re aiming to get the job done this time around.

“We’re really excited for the event in Sault Ste. Marie,” Jacobs said this past weekend during the Stu Sells Toronto Tankard. “We were thrilled about the fact Sportsnet decided to put the Grand Slam back in Sault Ste. Marie. It’s always great to play in front of our hometown crowd. We get a lot of support, people follow our team religiously back home and to play in front of them, provide some entertainment and represent them at home is a great opportunity.”

“We do have some unfinished business,” he added. “We lost to [Mike] McEwen last time in the final. Obviously we want to win that event at home, but it’s all going to come down to just our effort on every single shot. We’re just going to stay with that mentality every event and hopefully in Sault Ste. Marie that’ll be enough to win the event.”

It’s that slow and steady approach that is keeping Team Jacobs on course during a key season towards qualifying for next year’s Canadian Olympic Trials and continue their quest to defend their gold medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea.

Team Jacobs missed out on a direct berth to the Olympic Trials the last time around after they were edged out by Toronto’s Team John Epping in a slim margin via Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) points. Jacobs had to compete in a pre-trials tournament in order to sneak in the side door to qualify, however, once he was in the Olympic Trials his team took flight from there. Team Jacobs ran the table posting a perfect 8-0 record to earn the right to represent Canada in Sochi, Russia.

While a straight spot into the Olympic Trials is still the preferred route — winning the Canada Cup or finishing on the podium at the world championship can also clinch a direct berth — Jacobs said his mindset hasn’t really changed. That’s probably why his track to qualifying is more like a marathon and less like an Andre De Grasse sprint.

“We know that there’s a lot on the line. We know that it would be great to get a direct Trials spot and all that stuff, we know all of those things,” he said. “Really what we’re trying to focus on is just giving it our maximum effort on every single shot and hopefully that will translate into a lot of good things for our team.”

Jacobs is currently ranked fourth on the 2016-17 CTRS with 122.504 points thanks to a big win at the College Clean Restoration Curling Classic last month in Saskatoon. It was Jacobs’ first title victory on the World Curling Tour since capturing his first career Grand Slam at the Players’ Championship in April 2015, and he said the win was long overdue.

“We were due to win an event especially after last year not winning a World Curling Tour event,” he said. “I think that really boosted our confidence a little bit early in the season especially since we haven’t had any opportunity to throw rocks yet, we didn’t have any ice back home. But it’s always great to get a win early, kind of get that monkey off your back and just continue to hopefully build some momentum from that.”

Full-event passes are now on sale for 2016 Boost National for a special early bird rate, click here for details to purchase yours today.