News Elite 10

PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. — John Morris and his Vernon, B.C., team moved up to a 2-0-0-0 record at the Princess Auto Elite 10.

Team Morris shutout defending champion Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., with a 4-and-3 victory during Friday morning’s draw.

Morris scored four ends in the match play game with Gushue unable to secure a single checkmark and shook hands after the fifth end. Gushue was just a tad heavy on the draw to surrender a steal in the first. A push in the second handed the hammer back to Morris, who tacked on another checkmark in the third, stole again in four and swiped another in five.

Team Gushue (0-1-0-2, two points) are fresh off of winning their first Canadian men’s championship this past Sunday in their hometown.

Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers (0-1-1-1, three points) landed on the button in the shootout to edge Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock (0-0-1-1, one point).

Peter de Cruz of Switzerland improved to a 1-1-0-1 record (five points) with a 2-and-1 victory over Sweden’s Niklas Edin. With the game all square, De Cruz pulled ahead in the fifth sitting four stones in the rings and fourth Benoit Schwarz didn’t need to throw his last as Edin fired a pistol shot that hit the guards, but didn’t get any of the granite going in the house. A steal in six made it 2-up for De Cruz as Edin looked at two counters and clipped a guard. Edin needed to take the seventh, but his last rock hit a stone higher up leading to handshakes.

Team Edin (1-0-0-2) earned a regulation win over Toronto’s John Epping to earn three points and lost to Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., during Thursday’s play.

The Princess Auto Elite 10 runs through to Sunday at the Civic Centre.

MATCH PLAY: Teams compete to win the most ends per game by either scoring two or more with the hammer or stealing at least one without the hammer. … Blank ends result in loss of hammer and there are no carryovers. … Teams earn three points for a regulation win, two points for a shootout win and one point for a shootout loss.

NOTES: The Princess Auto Elite 10 is the fifth event of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season and features a match play format where … The champion will earn an invite to the season-ending Humpty’s Champions Cup running April 25-30 at WinSport Arena in Calgary. … Teams also earn points toward the Rogers Grand Slam Cup, awarded to the overall season champion.