Gushue tops Epping to punch Masters playoff ticket
SELKIRK, Man. — Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., powered through arguably the toughest pool in the Masters to punch a playoff ticket with a 3-1 record.
Gushue secured his spot for the quarterfinals breaking a tie in the sixth end with a huge score of four to defeat Toronto’s John Epping during Draw 10 Friday morning.
After falling to Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton on opening night Tuesday, Gushue got on track picking up wins over six-time Masters winner Glenn Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont., and reigning world champion Thomas Ulsrud of Norway.
“We looked at our pool coming into this event and there were no easy games. Usually, when that’s the case, you’re the easy game,” Gushue said with a smile. “To finish 3-1 in the pool, we’re pretty happy. We know we’re going to be playing now Saturday in the quarters and any time you can qualify in an event like this it’s pretty good. Now it’s just a matter of getting hot in the playoffs.”
Epping (2-1) opened with a single in the first and a steal of one in the second before Gushue jumped ahead with a deuce in the third and a steal of one in the fourth. Epping added one in the fifth to tie it up.
“We got off to a really slow start, just a little slow waking up, but fortunately we made a couple shots to keep us in the game early and it looked like we could have been down 4-0 or 5-0,” Gushue said. “We got down 2-0 and got a good deuce to get back into the game and came up with a big four-ender and played really strong in the fifth and sixth ends and shifted the momentum of the game.”
Elsewhere, Switzerland’s Sven Michel (3-1) qualified for the playoffs as well with a 6-5 victory over Calgary’s John Morris (1-2).
In the women’s division, Edmonton’s Val Sweeting is off to the playoffs with a 3-1 record following a 9-3 win over Alli Flaxey of Listowel, Ont. Sweeting scored three-enders in the second and fourth, a single in the sixth and a steal of two in the seventh. Flaxey is finished at 1-3.
The Masters continues with Draw 11 action at 1:30 p.m. ET / 10:30 a.m. PT featuring Russia’s Anna Sidorova against Edmonton’s Heather Nedohin on Sportsnet.
