News National

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. — Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., has qualified for the playoffs in his first tournament since returning from a hip/groin injury.

Gushue, who missed eight events to start the season, locked up a spot in the Boost National men’s quarterfinals with a 3-0 record after picking up a 7-5 win over hometown hero Brad Jacobs (2-1) during Draw 9 Thursday night at the Essar Centre.

Team Gushue second Brett Gallant said it’s nice having Gushue back in the mix as they continue their quest to defend the Boost National title and their No. 1 world ranking.

“He’s probably not at 100 percent yet but just having him in the lineup makes us better because it puts everybody back in their normal roles,” Gallant said. “We’re really glad to have him back and he’s playing super well already so it’s good.” 

It was a see-saw affair with the teams matching singles in the first couple ends and deuces back and forth in the third and fourth ends. Gushue split the rings to set up another deuce in the fifth end and Jacobs tied it again 5-5 in the sixth end bailing his team out with a triple takeout on his first skip stone to set the stage and score a deuce with his last. 

“Both skips were playing really well and making shots,” Gallant said. “We had a couple good ends set up and Jacobs made a couple dandies to get two. It was a well-played game. We were just kind of trading deuces and lots of points out there to be scored.” 

Gushue finally caught a lucky break in the seventh and made Jacobs pay. After Jacobs couldn’t pull off a double takeout, getting just one counter out, Gallant and lead Geoff Walker dragged Gushue’s final stone in for one more deuce. Walker and Gallant were on the ball again in eight holding the line for Gushue’s final skip stone without the hammer to kick out Jacobs’s lone rock in the house, and barely missing their own, to bring out handshakes.

“We had to go pretty hard on a couple of them,” Gallant said with a smile. “The ice got a little trickier in the last two ends. Jacobs and them made a couple bad picks in the last, but just got a little bit more curl and we had to stay on them or else they were getting pretty tight.”

Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers escaped with a 6-5 win over Niklas Edin of Sweden to also qualify at 3-0 and continue to carry the momentum from his recent Canada Cup victory Sunday where he clinched a spot in next year’s Olympic Trials. 

“It feels awesome, man,” Team Carruthers third Braeden Moskowy said. “Our biggest thing when we came out here this week was just to have fun. We’re all pretty tired from the grind that was last week but obviously we’re still playing well. We’re trying to hang in there, keep grinding away and yeah it’s awesome to be in the playoffs at another Slam.”

Edin, winner of the past two GSOC men’s titles, fell to a 1-2 record.

Sponsor’s exemption Tanner Horgan of Sudbury, Ont., ended his tournament on a stunning high note upsetting Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock 6-4 in an extra end. Horgan, who missed the playoffs at 1-3, scored a deuce in eight to force the extra then sat another pair when Laycock’s last rock of the game picked to hand over the victory. The loss eliminated Laycock from playoff contention at 0-3.

In the women’s division, Olympic gold medallist Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg improved to a 2-1 record winning 6-3 over South Korea’s EunJung Kim (0-4) and Kerri Einarson of Winnipeg also climbed to 2-1 with a 5-3 victory over Scotland’s Eve Muirhead (1-2).

NOTES: The Boost National is the third event and second major of the 2016-17 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season. … Round-robin action continues Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET with television coverage resuming at Noon ET on Sportsnet. … The Boost National runs through to Sunday afternoon at the Essar Centre.