News Elite 10

FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. — Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., and Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen sit atop of the pool standings after jumping out to 2-0 starts on the opening day of the Syncrude Elite 10. 

Gushue, who has captured two Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling titles this season, topped Toronto’s John Epping and Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., during Thursday’s action while National champion McEwen defeated Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock and cruised past Niklas Edin of Sweden.

“The Slams this year have been treating us well,” said Gushue, who has won the Masters and Canadian Open this season. “Today was a good day getting two wins against two really good teams. We’re quite happy with where we are right now.”

Team Gushue was also the clear fan favourite right from the player introductions through to the final rock with several Newfoundland and Labrador flags flying in the crowd.

“Tonight was great, it was a lot of fun, very pro-Team Gushue (crowd) which is nice, a lot of support and a lot of nice comments,” Gushue said. “It’s great to see people out and to see a full house here — whether they’re our fans or not it’s great to see a full house — but when there are a lot of Team Gushue fans it’s even better.”

The non-major Syncrude Elite 10 tournament uses match play rules. Teams compete to win the most ends by either scoring two or more points (with hammer) or steal at least one point (without hammer). A blank results in loss of hammer similar to a skins game, however, the unclaimed point does not carry over to the next end. McEwen said match play is more of a mental grind compared to skins play.

“The skins you lose some of the ends in the first five ends and it’s no big deal, the big ends are six, seven and eight, seven and eight in particular. But here it’s a mental grind for every end because every end matters the same,” McEwen said. “I would say mental fatigue could be more of an issue playing match play than anything else. I think that’s the big difference so for teams that play back-to-back games you’ve got to think about that. You’ve got to rest the brain in between games, fuel up and get some food.” 

Gushue added that it has been stressful making quality decisions on the ice with so many rocks in play while having the same amount of thinking time as the other Pinty’s Grand Slam events.

“I think if we play this a little bit more over the next couple years you’re going to get used to it and better at it,” Gushue said. “There are good and bad points but I think overall it’s pretty good and I have to imagine for TV it’s pretty entertaining with 10, 12 rocks in play every end and a lot of tough shots tried and a lot of made.”

Gushue got the fans off to a roaring start stealing the first end against Jacobs in a battle between Olympic gold medallists. 

Jacobs, the 2014 Sochi Olympics champ, responded with an angle raise to count two in the second and square the game. Gushue, winner at the 2006 Turin Olympics, pulled back into the lead with a deuce in the third to take the end and made it a 2-up advantage after Jacobs flashed on his final shot in four to give up a steal. Jacobs (1-1) cut the deficit back to one with a deuce in five for the checkmark. Gushue had to settle for a single in six to give up the hammer but stole the seventh to get the 2 & 1 victory.

McEwen gave up a steal in the first but rebounded to win the second and swiped three consecutive ends in the 3-and-2 win over Edin (0-2).

Earlier Thursday, Gushue stole four straight ends during a 3-and-1 win over Epping and McEwen picked up a 2-and-1 decision against Laycock in the opening draw. 

Elsewhere in Draw 3, Epping bounced back from the loss to Gushue and beat Sven Michel of Switzerland 3-and-2. Epping (1-1) opened with hammer but couldn’t score in the first, however, he was able to steal points in the second, third and fourth ends to gain a three-point lead. Michel (0-2) got on the board in the fifth with a double runback to count two and Epping won the sixth to clinch the victory.