Jacobs bounces Bottcher from Players' Championship

Jacobs bounces Bottcher from Players’ Championship

Team Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., are in good standing at the Princess Auto Players’ Championship after wrapping up their round-robin schedule early Friday afternoon.

Jacobs finished a 3-2 run through pool play with a 7-2 victory over Edmonton’s Team Brendan Bottcher to eliminate the reigning champions from the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling double bubble at Calgary’s WinSport Arena.

Team Jacobs third Marc Kennedy said they’re feeling really good and comfortable with the ice.

“Almost feels like we’re starting to come into our own with what’s been a pretty difficult season for everyone,” said Kennedy, who is the team’s import from St. Albert, Alta. “We’re in a good place. We still need a little bit of help here to get into the playoffs, so we’ll be watching the scoreboard closely, but pretty happy with where we’re at.”

Kennedy explained the tactical side to the team where they’ve had some good conversations off the ice about having fewer conversations on the ice. That’s all part of the learning curve of still being a relatively new team as Kennedy just joined them last season.

“We’re still trying to get to know what works for each one of us and I think having those conversations are really important,” Kennedy said. “There are times when I overstepped with the chatter and tried to control too much of the game and that took Brad a little bit out of his element. We’ve had some great talks about me stepping back a bit, focusing a little more on making my shots and letting Brad just kind of do his own thing. They’ve all been really positive conversations with the goal of getting better so we’re peaking for next year’s Slams and the other big events. It’s been a really important couple of weeks for this team.”

It’s unclear at this point where Team Jacobs will land but Kennedy is looking to empty the tank and finish on a high note before saying goodbye to the bubble for good. Kennedy was in for the Brier with Team Jacobs as Northern Ontario, partnered with Val Sweeting for mixed doubles nationals and was the alternate for Team Canada and Bottcher at the men’s worlds. Kennedy has won the Players’ Championship six times with three different skips — John Morris, Kevin Martin and Kevin Koe — and would love to add another one to that list.

“I love the Players’ Championship,” Kennedy said. “It’s a big event, we’ve had a lot of success here but it is your last chance to be on the ice as a team for the season. You want to go out there and give it all you got. It’s easy to think, ‘Oh when this is done I can go home and enjoy my summer,’ but it’s harder to enjoy the summer if you didn’t have a good performance if your last performance isn’t a good one.

“I’ve always gone on that. Let’s finish the year strong and we can have a really good momentum going into next year. I think this team with the way we’re going we want to keep playing. We’ve got maybe two more days here, so let’s lay it all out there and give it our best and see if we can do some damage in the playoffs. That’s kind of our mentality right now.”

Draw to the button shoots are always crucial according to Kennedy, however, Jacobs covered the pinhole on his draw to the button to secure the hammer and help boost the confidence.

“They’re always important and they also give you an opportunity to really get engaged in the game. I’ve got to give credit to Brad,” Kennedy said. “Brad’s draws for his LSD have been great all week. We’ve all thrown one and today was the day we got to choose someone to throw and we all wanted Brad to do it just because he’s been so close. Not only did he go button but he almost went button again with no sweepers.

“He’s got a certain level of confidence and you love to see it in practise. He’s our leader right now and we’re just following what he’s doing. All these games that we’re starting with the hammer is definitely helping us out.”

The seven-time Grand Slam title winner Jacobs was unable to convert and was forced to hit for a single in the second, however, he remained in control for the most part. Bottcher was forced to make a tricky triple straight raise attempt that went off target right on the first runback to give up a single steal. It went from bad to worse for Bottcher in the fourth as he wrecked on a guard and conceded two more points to fall behind 4-0.

“We played a really good third end to get that one steal,” Kennedy said. “Once we got up 2-0, that certainly helped. Then we played a great fourth end and we had Brendan in trouble the whole end, made a couple good freezes, Brad made a great control weight hit and roll buried and just kept the pressure on them. Then when we stole two there, a four-point lead is tough to overcome for them. Just a great start and I can think of a lot of great shots, which usually means everyone’s playing pretty well and that was kind of the difference.”

Kennedy pulled off a spectacular quad on his first shot of the fifth end, but you’re only as good as your last one and a miss on the double with his second allowed Team Bottcher to set the table to score their deuce and breathe new life into the game.

“I wanted to make that double pretty bad,” Kennedy said. “The first one was good to get everything moving and take a three-pointer out of play. I’d like to have that double back but the one thing we’ve talked about as a group is how well we feel we’re throwing the rock. Even on that one I wouldn’t have changed much with how I threw it. It was more just maybe not trusting what the ice was going to do. Always room for improvement but it certainly feels good to be close on all those.”

That only lasted for one more end, however, as Jacobs counted three in the sixth and Bottcher waved goodbye.

Bottcher finished runner-up Monday in the Humpty’s Champions Cup to Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat, but was knocked out of contention this time with a 1-4 record.

Elsewhere, Jason Gunnlaugson and his team from Morris, Man., are still hanging on for now with a 2-3 record following an 8-6 victory over reigning world champions Team Niklas Edin of Sweden. Edin (2-2) trailed by one point without the hammer in the final frame and forced Gunnlaugson to draw to the button to stay in the mix.

In women’s play, Humpty’s Champions Cup winners Team Rachel Homan of Ottawa finished their pool at 3-2 with a 5-4 extra-end victory over short-handed Team Satsuki Fujisawa of Japan. Homan held the hammer in overtime and knocked out Fujisawa’s rock plus two of her own with her first skip stone to sit open on the button. The 11-time Grand Slam women’s title winner didn’t need to throw her final rock for a victory shot as Fujisawa came up light on her last.

Team Fujisawa (3-1) are playing without lead Yurika Yoshida, who returned home to begin the quarantine process before heading to Scotland for the world mixed doubles championship.

Scotland’s Team Eve Muirhead ended things on a positive note picking up a 7-4 win over RCF’s Team Alina Kovaleva. The three-time Players’ champion Muirhead was already eliminated and finished at 1-4.

Two round-robin draws remain on tap Friday beginning with the conclusion of women’s pool play at 6 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. local time on Sportsnet with online streaming at Sportsnet Now (Canada) or Yare (international). The feature game is Winnipeg’s Team Jennifer Jones vs. Team Anna Hasselborg of Sweden.

NOTES: The Princess Auto Players’ Championship features 12 of the top men’s teams and 12 of the top women’s teams from around the world. … Both divisions are split into two pools for round-robin play, the top six overall qualify for Saturday’s quarterfinals with the best two earning byes to the semifinals in the evening. … Both championship games are scheduled for Sunday.