News Elite 10

FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. — Glenn Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont., stole a point in the fifth end to grab the lead and held on to defeat Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers 1-up during Draw 4 action Friday morning at the Syncrude Elite 10.

Howard climbed to a 2-0 record in the match play Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling tournament while Carruthers is now 1-1.

The non-major Syncrude Elite 10 tournament uses match play rules. Teams compete to win the most ends by either scoring two or more points (with hammer) or steal at least one point (without hammer). A blank results in loss of hammer similar to a skins game, however, the unclaimed point does not carry over to the next end.

Carruthers opened with the hammer and scored in the first but Howard squared in the second. The teams traded points through three and four and the steal in five gave Howard the one-point lead. No points were scored during the sixth and seventh ends and Howard ran Carruthers out of rocks in eight to win. 

Elsewhere, Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., stole the eighth end to complete a 1-up comeback over Switzerland’s Sven Michel and improve to a 3-0 record. Michel (0-3) stole the first two ends to open with a two-point advantage, but Gushue rallied winning three and five to knot it up and Michel came up light on his last rock in the final frame.

Sweden’s Niklas Edin (1-2) earned his first win of the tournament defeating Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock (0-3). Edin took the first end but gave up a steal in three to make it all-square. Edin bounced back nailing a double takeout to win the fourth and stole the fifth and sixth ends to ice the game with a 3-and-2 victory.