News National

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. — Recent Canada Cup winner Reid Carruthers of Winnipeg picked up where he left off with a 7-5 victory over American John Shuster to start his pool play schedule in the Boost National during Draw 3 Wednesday.

Carruthers captured the Canada Cup men’s title this past Sunday to clinch a spot in next year’s Olympic Trials.

It was a bit of a wake-up call to start though with Shuster holding the hammer and scoring three points in the first. Team Carruthers lead Colin Hodgson said taking that lump in the first was exactly what they needed to bounce back big time and score four in the second to take a hold of the game. 

“It was definitely very hard to get motivated for that game and mentally took more work than any game this entire year for sure,” he said. “It was kind of hard to keep the eyes on our own sheet for some reason but we’re really happy we were able to keep it together enough. We gave up three in the first end and knew immediately we needed to refocus and do the little things to score a four in the next end.” 

“It was definitely a slap in the face in the first end to give up a three,” Hodgson added. “We should have given up five probably but then Reid made a great double and roll. I think that was the best thing that could have happened to us was to give up a three in the first end so that we knew we really needed to refocus and start putting rocks in better positions. We were a little lazy in the first end in our execution and finishing off the shots.” 

Carruthers continued to power up extending his lead in the third with a steal of one to make it 5-3. Shuster had to settle for a single in the fourth end when his last rock came up light. Carruthers blanked the fifth and took one in the sixth to regain the two-point advantage. Shuster looked to blank the seventh end but hit on the nose to get stuck for a point. Carruthers grabbed shot rock with his first skip stone in eight and didn’t need to throw his last as Shuster came up short again.

Meanwhile, Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher topped Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock 7-4. Bottcher rebounded from his opening night loss to Brad Jacobs to even his record at 1-1 while Laycock starts at 0-1. 

In the women’s division, Scotland’s Eve Muirhead levelled her record to 1-1 trouncing Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque 8-3. Muirhead broke a 1-1 tie with a three-ender in the third and stole two in the fourth to add some more separation on the scoreboard with a five-point gap. Rocque (0-1) took two in the fifth to cut into the deficit. Muirhead punched one on the board in six and stole a point in seven for handshakes.

Reigning world champion Binia Feltscher of Switzerland improved to a 1-1 record with an 8-3 win over Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones (0-1).

Masters women’s champion Allison Flaxey of Caledon clipped Tracy Fleury of Sudbury 6-5 in an all-Ontario match.

NOTES: The Boost National is the third event and second major of the 2016-17 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season. … TV coverage begins Thursday at Noon ET on Sportsnet. … Round-robin action continues Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. ET. … All teams play four round-robin games with the top eight moving on to the playoffs. … The Boost National runs through to Sunday afternoon at the Essar Centre.