News Canadian Open

YORKTON, Sask. — Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., brushed past Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers 6-3 Wednesday night to advance to the triple knockout A-qualifiers in the Meridian Canadian Open. 

It was a rematch of last month’s National men’s final where Gushue where capture his fourth career Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title in Oshawa, Ont. 

Gushue (2-0) scored deuces in the first, third and fifth ends. Carruthers (1-1) settled for singles in two, four and six.

“A little bit scary in the first end but we made our last two and we made them pretty nice,” Gushue said. “After that I thought we really played well and really controlled the game.”

Gushue will play Scotland’s David Murdoch, who drew to the button in the extra end for a 5-4 victory over Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock and improve to 2-0.

“It’s super great,” Murdoch said. “We had a month off and obviously were home for a while and the birth of my daughter. We trained really hard, we practised a lot and we feel fresh coming in this time rather than being three or four weeks on tour so we were pretty pumped for this week.”

Murdoch gave up a steal of two in the first to Laycock and recovered to counter with a deuce in three. The teams alternated singles in four and five and Murdoch stole one in seven to go up one coming home. Laycock had a chance to score two for the win in eight but came up heavy and only got one to force the extra frame.

“It was a real tough one,” Murdoch said. “Steve played a really nice wrapper in on his last and actually my first, the guys just swept the hell out of it and we shaved it and gave Steve a really hard shot. Yeah it was a great team effort this game, it’s been a good day.”

Canadian Cup winner Kevin Koe of Calgary secured a 7-5 win over Sweden’s Niklas Edin. Koe also climbed to a 2-0 record on the day, defeating Brier champion Pat Simmons in the morning, and will play in the second A-qualifier game. 

“Coming off a big win you always wonder if you’re going to have a letdown so obviously the focus coming was to not do that and we played a really good one this morning and got some breaks,” Team Koe second Brent Laing said. “The ice was a little tricky this game but we were patient and that’s a good sign. We just kept trying to hit our spots, played pretty well, got a couple breaks and pulled it off. Yeah so a great day.”

Laing is hoping his team’s sponsor Meridian is their good luck charm for the week. 

“They were a big sponsor at the Canada Cup so hopefully having them here as a presenting sponsor is great,” Laing said. “We’re meeting lots of people from Meridian and that’s always fun so yeah we like to do well anytime Meridian is on the board or on the ice or anywhere. We like to do well all the time but it’s extra special when you can do it in your sponsor’s events.” 

In B bracket action, Charlottetown’s Adam Casey stunned Glenn Howard, of Penetanguishene, Ont., by swiping a 9-3 victory in five ends. Casey (1-1) trailed 2-1 after two and stole three in the third and five in the fourth for a commanding seven-point lead. Howard (0-2) could only get a single in the fifth and shook hands early. 

“It’s been a bit of a grind of a year for us,” Team Casey lead Robbie Doherty said. “We haven’t had the success that we were looking for but we’ve done a lot of work. We brought on a mental coach, Anne Chouinard, who worked a lot with LPGA golfer Lorie Kane from P.E.I., so she’s been helping us prepare for these bigger events. We’ve been working on a lot of routine stuff like pre-game routine, post-game routine and pre-competition routine stuff so I think we’re starting to see benefits from that.”

“We finally have ice in P.E.I. since the start of November so getting the chance to practise together has been very beneficial, I think,” Doherty added. “It’s been one of those years where we’re close. We’ve always been close so finally I think we’ll start to see some results come through because we’ve been playing pretty well but like I’ve said before it’s just time to put our big boy pants on and get out there and deal with it.” 

Casey next faces Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., who earned a 7-3 win over Jim Cotter of Vernon, B.C. Jacobs improved to a 1-1 record and Cotter dropped into the C event at 0-2.

NOTES: The Meridian Canadian Open is the fourth stop — and third major — or the 2015-16 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season and runs through to Sunday. … The event features a triple knockout where teams must win three games before they lose three in order to qualify for the playoffs. … Watch live coverage of the Meridian Canadian Open on Sportsnet starting Thursday at noon ET / 9 a.m. PT.