News National

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. — Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., made up for lost time in his season debut Tuesday night at the Boost National.

Gushue, who missed his team’s first eight events due to a hip/groin issue, scored three in the second end and stole three in the third during a 9-4 victory over Tanner Horgan of Sudbury, Ont., in the opening draw of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling major event at the Essar Centre.

The defending champion Gushue admitted he’s not quite in top form yet.  

“I didn’t know what to expect and having not thrown a whole lot of rocks coming into this event — and certainly having not thrown a whole lot of good rocks — I was little bit nervous,” said Gushue, who has won six titles in the series. “Overall I think I played OK. I had a couple of shots that if I was in mid-season form I probably wouldn’t expect the result that I got tonight. The guys said I looked a little bit like I had the training wheels on and it certainly feels like that. It’s going to be a bit more time before I get back to 100 percent but this is a good building block towards that.” 

The Canadian junior silver medallist Horgan was making his Grand Slam series debut as the sponsor’s exemption. Gushue believes it’s great having the young squad in the event and reflected on his own early appearances in the series. 

“I was pretty fortunate when I was in my early 20s to get invited to the Grand Slams and that was back when you had the Slammers and you had everybody else. I was one of the lucky ones that got to play in a bit of both,” Gushue said. “I learned a lot from that and got a lot more comfortable on arena ice and playing against the top teams. These guys are going to learn from this weekend and realize that they’re probably not as far off from what they thought they were, but they’re also probably going to take some lumps this weekend too.

“It is a learning process and a lot of information is going to come out as far as playing on this ice, dealing with rocks, playing with probably a few more rocks than you’re going to see in juniors and also playing the best teams in the world. You can’t get away with some shots that you can in juniors because the guys here aren’t going to miss those.” 

Horgan opened with the hammer and fired a double in the first end to score a single point. Gushue quickly pulled into the lead in the second pulling off a double of his own on his first skip stone that set the table to score three. After Gushue made a come-around draw to lie three in the third, Horgan misfired a double attempt to concede the steal and fall behind 6-1.

The 18-year-old Horgan chipped away at the deficit taking two in the fourth by splitting the rings and stole one in the fifth when Gushue came up light on his last. Gushue was looking to blank the sixth end and hit and rolled but his shooter remained in the rings to settle for a single. Horgan attempted an angle raise in the seventh but didn’t get the right degree to give up two more points and shook hands.

Elsewhere, reigning Olympic gold medallist Brad Jacobs kicked off his homecoming event with a 7-2 rout over Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher. Jacobs said it was amazing to start with a big win and was feeling the fan support right from the opening ceremonies. 

“We definitely had the heart racing a little bit more when we walked out, I think,” he said. “We got some goosebumps. It’s always nice playing in front of the hometown crowd. They support us in everything that we do. To be in our hometown and to be able to provide some entertainment to them and see the fans come out and support us is great.”

The moose calls filled the arena with that quirky Northern Ontario ambience. Jacobs said he smiled on the inside as it felt like the Brier.

“I almost said it out loud to my guys, ‘It feels like the Brier out here. We’ve got some moose calls,’” Jacobs said. “It’s so awesome it’s hard to put into words what it’s like to play in your hometown. We just hope that the people come out every night and watch the show. There’s going to be a lot of great curling even besides us. This is the cream of the crop. This is the top 30 teams in the world on both men’s and women’s sides. It’s going to be a fantastic week of curling and hopefully Sault Ste. Marie really gets behind this event and I’m sure they will.”

Already up 2-1 after three ends, Jacobs rolled away with a three-ender in the fourth and stole two in the fifth. Bottcher was limited to just a single in the sixth and shook hands. 

In women’s division action, Tour Challenge winner Val Sweeting of Edmonton took two in the extra end to edge reigning world champion Binia Feltscher of Switzerland 8-6 and Russia’s Anna Sidorova held off a second-half surge from Scotland’s Eve Muirhead to win 6-5.

NOTES: The Boost National is the third event and second major of the 2016-17 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season. … TV coverage begins Thursday at Noon ET on Sportsnet. … Round-robin action resumes Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. ET. … All teams play four round-robin games with the top eight moving on to the playoffs. … The Boost National runs through to Sunday afternoon at the Essar Centre.