News Players' Championship

TORONTO — The winning streak is still alive for Brad Gushue.

The St. John’s, N.L., native Gushue — who went 13-0 at the world championship — has now tacked on three wins at the WestJet Players’ Championship, the fourth and final Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling major of the season.

Gushue (3-0) outlasted Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers 7-5 during Draw 7 Thursday, but the streak isn’t on his mind so much as making sure his team has a shot at defending the Players’ Championship.

“The winning streak I don’t really care about because by next year people are going to forget about it anyway,” Gushue said with a smile. “It’s not something people are going to remember or something that people keep track of. The fact that we’ve won what 24 or 25 in a row is not that big of a deal because it’s going to end at some point. If we are going to end it hopefully it’ll be tonight or tomorrow and not on Saturday or Sunday.”

Gushue stole two to start and had Carruthers on the run from there to keep pace. Carruthers (1-2) matched with a pair in the second, the teams split singles in three and four and alternated deuces in five and six to keep things tight at 5-5.

Gushue counted another couple in seven and Carruthers was unable to maintain the pace to the finish line. Third Braeden Moskowy messed up his second shot in the eighth and Carruthers’s first skip stone hit and rolled out to leave him without any options at forcing an extra end.

“We always have great games against Reid and that was another one that could have went either way. If Braeden makes his second one they’re going to have a chance to score three and he just ticked the guard and that opened it up for us,” Gushue said. “We knew worst case we’re only giving up two and then once Reid missed his first one it was game over. It was nip and tuck the whole game. There were a couple ends there they looked like they had us on the ropes and we were able to weasel our way out of it.

“We got the win and that’s the main thing and I think 3-2 we’re in the playoffs now so that’s the bonus. We can relax a little bit over the next couple games and make sure we’re ready for Saturday.”

Meanwhile, Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen improved to a 2-1 record with a 9-4 win over John Morris of Vernon, B.C.

Team Morris fourth Jim Cotter left his last open and McEwen pounced on the opportunity to pop it on the nose and score three. Cotter’s last draw in the second needed to stop at the back of the eight-foot circle or risk a steal and hit the brakes just in time for a single.

McEwen already had shot rock in three prior to his last and drew in for his second point to get a four-point advantage. Cotter drew for one in the fourth end as well and landed on the button while facing two counters. Looking to add to his total in five, McEwen made a hit but rolled just a tad too far and a measurement gave Morris the steal of one.

Morris stole again in six sitting three counters within the four-foot circle and McEwen made two go to limit the damage. That narrowed the gap to 5-4, but was as close as Morris would get. McEwen bounced back in seven to add some space on the scoreboard as he sat shot and nudged in another stone to score two.

“That wasn’t one I would have liked to have for a shot for two but with five-rock [rule] we didn’t want to be forced to one and only two up coming home,” McEwen said. “There was a lot of effort to try to get two that end because as you saw in eight Team Morris made some good shots and it didn’t take much to have a chance for three.”

Cotter had it lined up for a triple in the eighth to tie it. While McEwen was disappointed with his last that gave Cotter the opportunity, he breathed a sigh of relief when it passed right through the port untouched.

“We were trying to roll just to an exact spot to not give Jim a triple,” McEwen said. “It’s tough when your margin of error is so small. We got fortunate we didn’t have to go to an extra end so that was nice considering we played a really good first half of the game. We tried to put them away but they made some good shots down the stretch. They were hard to put away and the scoreboard showed that they made it really tight at the end.”

Morris dropped to a 0-3 record and needs to win from here as a fourth loss will automatically eliminate his team, which is chasing an Olympic Trials spot based on points. Catlin Schneider is subbing for Rick Sawatsky and is playing second with Tyrel Griffith sliding over to throw lead stones.

Calgary’s Kevin Koe climbed to a 2-1 record with a 7-2 win over Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher in a Battle of Alberta. Bottcher dropped to 1-2. Scott Pfeifer is in the Team Koe lineup again for injured lead Ben Hebert.

China’s Bingyu Wang made the draw in the extra end to edge Allison Flaxey of Caledon, Ont., 4-3. Both teams hold 1-2 records.

Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni (3-0) is guaranteed a spot in the next round after scoring four in the sixth end during an 8-6 win over Sweden’s Margaretha Sigfridsson. Cathy Overton-Clapham is back at third for Team Tirinzoni with Manuela Siegrist still recovering from a knee injury. Sigfridsson dropped to 0-3 and needs to a win in order to avoid elimination.

Round-robin action at the WestJet Players’ Championship continues Thursday at 3:30 p.m. ET with TV coverage on Sportsnet and online at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and gsoc.yaretv.com (international).

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.