News Players' Championship

TORONTO — Brad Gushue said he was actually really surprised when he looked at the schedule for the WestJet Players’ Championship and saw he had drawn the “Group of Death” for his title defence.

Gushue faces the likes of Brendan Bottcher, John Morris, Reid Carruthers, Kevin Koe and Mike McEwen in a powerhouse week at the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling major.

Even while fighting fatigue from winning the world championship Sunday, Gushue has managed to find the win column so far picking up his second dub in as many days with a 6-4 victory over Morris during Wednesday night’s draw to lead the pool.

The St. John’s, N.L., native believes there isn’t a lot of pressure on his team at the event.

“I think based on what we’ve done over the last month people realize we’re probably a little fatigued coming in here and I would imagine for a team that’s had the couple years that we’ve had I think the expectations are pretty low actually, to be honest,” Gushue said. “If we can get through the round robin, find a way to get to Saturday, I’m confident we’ll get the engines going and be right there. It’s a challenge but the ice is good and it’s a great event. We love it so we’re doing everything we can to be ready for each game.”

It was a good start for Gushue, who opened with the hammer and made a draw to score three in the first frame. Team Morris clawed right back in the second with fourth Jim Cotter making a soft takeout to score two.

Gushue settled for a single in the third end, drawing against four counters, and appeared to pull away stealing points in consecutive ends to hold a 6-2 advantage after five.

The Elite 10 winner Morris settled for a single in the sixth end and swiped in seven as Gushue made a tricky runback double to concede one, but retained the hammer coming home.

Gushue made an unorthodox manoeuvre to take out one of his own stones with his first skip shot to make things difficult for Cotter, who had to go for it to keep the game alive, but couldn’t quite draw in there to sit the two.

“We picked our own out on purpose on my first one because I didn’t think he could actually make the shot that he tried. He made it as good as he could and it was just not enough,” said Gushue, who won his first career Brier title exactly one month ago. “Fortunately we were right, but even if he bumped it a little bit I’d have a wide-open hit to win the game.

“We controlled the scoreboard, it was a bit of a sloppy game. We had some misses there that gave them the two in the second and then we gave up a steal there as well and made a couple misses. We were pretty fortunate just to give up a steal of one. I had to make a heck of a shot on my last just to not give them two or three. We’re making some shots but we’re just not as tight as what we have been the last couple weeks and I think part of that is there’s a little bit of a mental fatigue and even some physical fatigue.

“If we can get through this pool and get into the playoffs I’m sure we’ll be ready to go. But boy oh boy we’ve got some tough games left. This is one of the tougher Slam pools I’ve seen in a long time.”

Gushue beat Bottcher to kick off the 25th running of the WestJet Players’ Championship on Tuesday night.

Morris (0-2) also fell to Koe earlier in the day and needs to turn on the jets as his team is in a fight for an Olympic Trials spot based on points.

Meanwhile, world women’s champ Rachel Homan of Ottawa also climbed to a 2-0 record surviving an intense showdown with a frantic 8-5 win over Ontario rival Allison Flaxey of Caledon.

Flaxey (1-1) started with hammer but couldn’t capitalize and just grabbed a single in the first. The teams alternated deuces in two and three to keep pace and Homan took one in the fourth to tie it 3-3 at the break. Flaxey reclaimed the lead in five splitting the rings to set up the score for another couple.

Homan went from two-down to two-up with a four-score in the sixth and stole one in seven to lead by three. Still, she had to pull of a double in eight or else Flaxey would have had an open draw and it would have been a different story.

“We were just having a little bit of a hard time managing the draw weights,” Team Homan second Joanne Courtney said. “We were making a lot of wrong guesses on a lot of our later draws and not quite hitting tolerance, so that was the difference in the first part of the game.

“We had a really good sixth end. Then it the eighth it came up light on a rock that had to be in the house and Allison threw up a guard and then the three’s on, so Rachel made a great one on her last and we’re thrilled with the win.”

It was a rematch of the Masters final from October where Flaxey topped Homan to capture her first career Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title.

Elsewhere, Olympic gold medallist Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., moved up to 2-0 as well by holding on for a 7-5 win over Niklas Edin of Sweden. Edin, who won silver at the world championship Sunday, now has a 1-1 record. Jacobs won his first career Grand Slam title at the Players’ Championship in 2015.

McEwen scored four in the fifth end to close out an 8-1 victory early over Koe. The Winnipeg native McEwen was in control from the start taking two in the first and stealing singles in two and three while limiting Koe, of Calgary, to just one point in the fourth end.

Bottcher, from Edmonton, took down the Winnipeg native Carruthers 7-2. McEwen, Koe, Bottcher and Carruthers are all level at 1-1 records.

Round-robin action at the WestJet Players’ Championship continues Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. TV coverage begins Thursday at Noon ET on Sportsnet and online at Sportsnet NOW.

NOTES: The WestJet Players’ Championship is the fourth major and sixth event of the 2016-17 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season and runs through to Sunday at Ryerson’s Mattamy Athletic Centre. … The Rogers Grand Slam Cup will be awarded to the overall season champions following the conclusion of the WestJet Players’ Championship. … Winners of the WestJet Players’ Championship will earn berths to the Humpty’s Champions Cup running April 25-30 in Calgary.