News Tour Challenge

REGINA — Brad Gushue got off to a perfect start to the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season.

The reigning world champion from St. John’s, N.L., threw 100 per cent during an 8-1 win over Glenn Howard in the opening draw of the Tour Challenge on Tuesday afternoon.

Gushue did not compete in the Tour Challenge last season as he missed three months due to a hip/groin issue, but he said he feels a lot healthier now heading into an Olympic year.

“I’m excited and hoping as the year goes on it’s going to continue to build strength and really get back to where I was a number of years ago,” said Gushue, the 2006 Olympic gold medallist. “Certainly way better than where it was last year, which is exciting and fun going out on the ice when you know you’re not going to be in pain.”

After Gushue blanked the opening frame, the seven-time Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title winner drew for an easy two points in the second after Howard wrecked on a guard.

Gushue made a draw to the button under cover in the third. Howard saw just enough to be able to hit it but was too soft and gave up a steal to fall behind 3-0.

Gushue put the pressure on in the fourth sitting five counters that forced Howard to draw for a single.

Howard fell into trouble again in the fifth and Gushue made a raise takeout on the nose to score four. Another single steal in six for Gushue brought out the handshakes.

“The ice was a challenge,” Gushue said. “It was a little bit of a slant on one side of the sheet, but both teams tried to avoid as much as possible and we were able to force them into playing some shots on that side more than they did for us. It was difficult over there and we got a couple misses out of Glenn and his team. I thought our team played really well and handled the ice as good as we could.”

While Gushue, third Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker have been on the ice in two events already this season — the Everest Curling Challenge and the Canad Inns Mixed Doubles Championship — the Tour Challenge is the first time they’re actually playing as a unit and still have some kinks to work out.

“There are certainly some things we’ve got to work on as a team and get back into the swing of things. You understand in the first game or even the first week there’s going to be some mistakes but, hopefully, we can get them corrected as quickly as possible,” Gushue said. “We didn’t make too many in that game, which is good, but the bonus of playing in the first two events is it gets you on the ice and gets you into the competitive mode, the game mode, so that’s good but now it’s nice to be back playing with my teammates and we’re looking forward to a good season.”

Joining the Penetanguishene, Ont., team of Howard, second David Mathers and lead Scott Howard this week is “super spare” Glen Muirhead filling in for third Richard Hart.

“Rich’s knees are pretty sore from the summer and he just felt with this being a big year with the pre-trials coming up in November he wants to ease into the year on his own terms, more or less,” Howard said. “Really what he wants to do is go out every day and just do some slides, work his knees in, get everything going as opposed to going into a Slam. We don’t have ice yet, you push it and then maybe might do more damage to his knees or whatever. It totally made sense. He’s basically going to take the month of September off, which is only two bonspiels for us.”

Howard is also the tactical coach for Eve Muirhead’s team and was overseas working with the Scottish squad when the idea to bring Eve’s older brother Glen on board came about.

“I brought my wife over and my wife Judy said, ‘You know what? What about Glen Muirhead?’ I said, ‘Wow. that’s unbelievable,’ because Glen is playing fifth for the boys [Team Smith],” Howard said. “I talked to Glen, talked to the team, talked to the coaches and they all thought it was a good idea and lo and behold he was here anyway. He’s a world-class curler. It’s going to be cool having Glenny play with us this week. Next week we’ve got Adam Spencer coming in for the Shorty [Jenkins Classic] and then after that Richie’s got his game in store for the Stu Sells in October.”

“We talked to Adam and he just couldn’t take the whole week off,” Howard added. “To be honest with you, he was our first choice and he said he can do one or the other and the Shorty makes sense, it’s a little bit less time off work. This actually worked out perfectly.”

Fortunately, Hart’s jersey also fit Muirhead perfectly.

“We were kind of shocked,” Howard said. “I really think Richie washed the shirt and put it through the dryer 17 times so that it’ll fit because there’s no way it fits as good as it does on Glenny.”

Elsewhere in Draw 1, Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alta., rolled out to a 9-2 rout over Allison Flaxey of Caledon, Ont., and China’s Bingyu Wang edged Scotland’s Eve Muirhead 7-5 in an extra end.

Only three games were on tap for the opening Tier 1 draw as a few teams were unable to fly in on time due to stormy weather forcing organizers to make last-minute changes to the draw schedule.

TIER 2

Scotland’s Hannah Fleming scored five in the first and rolled out to an 11-4 win over Regina’s Chantelle Eberle.

EunJung Kim of South Korea topped Calgary’s Nadine Scotland 7-3.

Saskatoon’s Stefanie Lawton scored four in the eighth end to come from behind and clip Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque 6-5.

In men’s play, Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher trounced Regina’s Jason Ackerman 11-1 and Carl deConinck Smith of Rosetown, Sask., earned an 8-5 victory over reigning Tour Challenge Tier 2 champion Greg Balsdon of Kingston, Ont.

NOTES

The Tour Challenge is the season-opening event of the 2017-18 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling calendar and runs through to Sunday at the Co-operators Centre at Evraz Place. … TV coverage begins Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sportsnet. … Winners of the Tier 1 division receive invites to the season-ending Pinty’s GSOC event, the Humpty’s Champions Cup, running April 24-29 in Calgary. … Winners of the Tier 2 division earn berths to the following Pinty’s GSOC event, the Masters, taking place Oct. 24-29 in Lloydminster, Sask.