News Elite 10

PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. — Peter de Cruz of Switzerland has advanced to the playoffs for the first time in a Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event at the Princess Auto Elite 10.

De Cruz (1-2-0-1, seven points) scored his second shootout win in as many days after holding off a late surge from Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., during Draw 5 Friday. 

It’s also the first time Team De Cruz has played in the Princess Auto Elite 10, which features a match play format similar to a skins game.

“It’s the first time for us in a skins game so it’s a little special,” De Cruz said. “We had to adapt to it a little bit at the beginning, like always a lot of rocks in play and it really takes a lot of energy out of you. But I think it’s really interesting and the ice is perfect so you can make any shot out of it.” 

After De Cruz stole three consecutive ends to start, Jacobs scored in the fourth to get on the board, swiped the fifth end to close within one and stole another in eight to make it all square and force the draw-to-the-button scenario. Team De Cruz fourth Benoit Schwarz went first and landed at the back edge of the four-foot circle. Jacobs didn’t like what he saw with his throw and kicked it off early. 

“The situation was crazy because we went up early in the game and we know against these guys that it’s going to be tight whatever happens,” said De Cruz, who missed the playoffs in his first 10 tournaments in the series. “We tried to really keep focused on the results of the game and not the momentum of the game and the fact they climbed back up. We just tried to keep it really tight until the end and thankfully now we’ve qualified in a Grand Slam.” 

De Cruz topped Sweden’s Niklas Edin 2-and-1 in the previous draw and also earned a shootout victory over Calgary’s Kevin Koe on Thursday. The single point in the shootout loss was enough for Jacobs (2-0-1-0) to qualify with seven points and a game in hand.

Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton and the Elite 10 Select team qualified climbing to a 3-0-0-0 record with a 2-and-1 victory over John Morris’s squad from Vernon, B.C. Morris now holds a 2-0-0-1 record with six points. 

Meanwhile, Koe (1-0-1-1, four points) picked up a big first win to stay in contention earning a 3-and-1 victory over Toronto’s John Epping.

Epping (1-0-0-2, three points) opened the scoring with an amazing angle raise in the second to take out Koe’s shot rock and nudge the other counter to sit two and capture the end. Koe countered in three sitting two after his first skip stone and Epping over-curled on his last to miss the pair and tie the game. Epping attempted another angle raise in four, but couldn’t pull it off to give up a steal. Epping tapped back Koe’s shot rock in five, but the counter jammed to stick for second and force the push. A hard double takeout by Koe gave him the sixth and a steal in seven clinched the game.

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