News Canadian Open

YORKTON, Sask. — Defending champion Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., punched the first ticket to the Meridian Canadian Open playoffs. 

Gushue eased his final stone of the extra end into the house to tap for two points and clip Scotland’s David Murdoch 7-5 in the A-qualifier Thursday afternoon at the Gallagher Centre.

Team Gushue now has about 48 hours until the club hits the ice again and the skip said it’s going to be tough trying to maintain the momentum in the interim. 

“That’s going to be the balance we’re going to have to strike and it’s a challenge especially when you have as long as we have,” Gushue said. “Two days, it’s a long time. We’re definitely going to throw rocks tomorrow, maybe a couple times tomorrow if we can, we might even throw later on tonight just to kind of keep loose and also kill time. You don’t want to do anything that’s going to wear you out or be too strenuous so you want to rest but you also want to stay sharp. We’ll discuss that but I think that we’ll at least practise once if not twice tomorrow and we’ll see how that works out come Saturday.”

Gushue opened the scoring with a deuce in the third and stole a point in the fourth to lead 3-0 heading into the break. Murdoch picked up a pair of points in the fifth end to close within one, but Gushue matched with a rad shot in the sixth to rebuild the three-point cushion.

“It was fortunate for his rock to stop where it did and give us that shot,” Gushue said. “It kind of looks cool on TV when you see rocks go backwards but we knew it was there and just had to throw it hard enough and hit it in the right place and fortunately we did.” 

Murdoch blanked seven and had a chance to score four in eight as Gushue’s team struggled, but the four-time Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling winner salvaged the end by making a double. Murdoch was still able to count three to tie it and force the extra frame. 

“We played a really bad eighth end and they had a chance for four. If he makes a good roll I’d need to get a really difficult double. Fortunately they left me a pretty easy double just to give them three,” Gushue said. “We played a pretty good last end and had a relatively easy shot to win and fortunately we made it but yeah that eighth end we had some discussion on it after the game the way we played and some of the ways we missed. It wasn’t very good.” 

Murdoch (2-1) has two more chances in the triple knockout to qualify for the playoffs.

Elsewhere, Toronto’s John Epping scored a point in the extra end to edge Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen 6-5. Epping (2-0) moves onto the second A-qualifier game against Calgary’s Kevin Koe. McEwen (1-1) dropped to the B event.

Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher advanced to the B event semifinals with a 9-3 win over Sven Michel of Switzerland. Bottcher (1-1) scored a big four in the third to go up 5-2. The teams alternated singles in five and six and Michel (0-2) shook hands after giving up a steal of three in seven.

American John Shuster (1-1) scored three-enders in three and five during a 7-6 victory over reigning Brier champion Pat Simmons (0-2) of Calgary. 

Reigning Olympic gold medallist Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is off to the B-qualifiers with a 3-2 win over Charlottetown’s Adam Casey. Jacobs (2-1) settled for a single in the sixth to go up 2-1 and added another point in seven when Casey couldn’t get the across-the-rings double with his last. Casey (1-2) held the hammer coming home and was only able to get one as his team dropped to the C-side.

NOTES: The Meridian Canadian Open is the fourth stop — and third major — on the 2015-16 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season and runs through to Sunday. … The event features a triple knockout where teams must win three games before they lose three in order to qualify for the playoffs. … Watch live coverage of the Meridian Canadian Open on Sportsnet continues at 2:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. PT.