Gushue, Jones win tiebreakers to advance to Co-op Canadian Open playoffs
RED DEER, Alta. — Team Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., and Winnipeg’s Team Jennifer Jones grabbed the final playoff berths in the Co-op Canadian Open.
Gushue clipped Calgary’s Team Kevin Koe 6-4 and Jones topped Team Tabitha Peterson of the United States 5-3 during Saturday’s morning tiebreakers at Servus Arena.
The 14-time Grand Slam of Curling men’s champion Gushue will now take on Switzerland’s Team Yannick Schwaller in the quarterfinals.
It’ll be a rematch of Friday’s round-robin finale where Schwaller stopped Gushue 4-2 to go 4-0 and take the No. 1 playoff seed.
That required Gushue, who went 2-2 in pool play, to take a detour through the tiebreaker against Koe. Trailing 5-4, Gushue jumped into the lead in the seventh with a split on his rock in the house and his shooter spun back enough into the four-foot circle to count for two.
Koe had just three seconds left on his time clock when he made his final shot in the eighth, looking to force an extra, but he jammed the counter as Gushue prevailed.
Jones, who has won 10 Grand Slam women’s titles, drew for two in the fifth and stole one in the sixth to build a 4-2 lead against Peterson.
That proved to be just too much to overcome for Peterson, who was forced to a single in the seventh. Jones just had to blast out Peterson’s shot rock in the eighth to advance to face Sweden’s Team Anna Hasselborg in the quarterfinals.
MEN’S QUARTERFINALS BRACKET
• Team Yannick Schwaller vs. Team Brad Gushue
• Team Brendan Bottcher vs. Team Matt Dunstone
• Team Ross Whyte vs. Team Joël Retornaz
• Team Bruce Mouat vs. Team James Craik
WOMEN’S QUARTERFINALS BRACKET
• Team Jennifer Jones vs. Team Anna Hasselborg
• Team Rachel Homan vs. Team Eun-Ji Gim
• Team Silvana Tirinzoni vs. Team Eun-Jung Kim
• Team Kerri Einarson vs. Team Satsuki Fujisawa
UP NEXT
The men’s quarterfinals kick off the playoffs at 2 p.m. ET / Noon MT followed by the women’s quarterfinals at 6 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. MT.
Both semifinals are also on tap Saturday at 10 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. MT.
Watch on Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet+ (Canada) and gsoclive.com (international).
