News National

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. — Brad Jacobs, Reid Carruthers and Brad Gushue all sit atop of the Boost National men’s leaderboard with 2-0 records following Wednesday night’s action. 

Jacobs, playing in his hometown Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event, doubled up on rising star Tanner Horgan of Sudbury 6-3 in a battle of Northern Ontario teams during Draw 5 at the Essar Centre.

The Canadian junior silver medallists Team Horgan (0-2) are making their Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling series debut as the sponsor’s exemption.

“We’re doing our best to try and learn how to play ourselves and not play the opposition as much, but those kids it’s fun to watch them because they’ve grown up watching our team,” Team Jacobs third Ryan Fry said. “It’s pretty cool to see a team that’s so successful when I think their average age is 17 so they’re easily the youngest team to ever play in a Slam and they’ve got a very, very bright future ahead of them.”

It looked like Jacobs was racing out of the gate with an opportunity to score five in the first but missed and gave up a steal of one. 

“We actually played a good end,” Fry said. “Horgan made a great little draw in there, we chased it and they ended up getting a steal out of it. They got rewarded for playing an aggressive shot. We just missed ours to put the game away probably really early. It was a good game and good on us for getting to 2-0.” 

The reigning Olympic gold medallist Jacobs bounced back with a deuce in the second and started to gain more ground stealing one in the third. Horgan grabbed a single in four to narrow the gap 3-2.

Jacobs added another deuce in five and covered the pin in six forcing Horgan to follow suit down a difficult path through a port, but he couldn’t nudge the rock off the button and conceded the steal. The 18-year-old Horgan was held to a single in seven and ran out of rocks in eight. 

Meanwhile, it was a good day at the office for Carruthers, fresh off of winning the Canada Cup and an Olympic Trials berth Sunday. Carruthers also claimed a 6-3 victory in Draw 5 defeating Mike McEwen in an all-Winnipeg matchup to follow up on a 7-5 win over American John Shuster earlier in the day. 

“Coming into this we were on an emotional high from the weekend and a really, really tight turnaround, but at the same time we were playing really well last weekend,” Carruthers said. “I almost feel like we’re kind of in robot mode, it’s just a matter of how long can we make it last.” 

Down by a point, Carruthers captured the lead late drawing to score four points in the seventh and ran McEwen (0-1) out of options in the eighth.

“We’re on a roll,” Carruthers said. “We’ve qualified [for the playoffs] the last couple Slams, but this time I’d like to come out and win this one. We played really well last week and won, so it would be nice to finish off 2016 with another win.”

The defending champion Gushue, from St. John’s, N.L., also improved to 2-0 defeating Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock 6-4. Gushue made his season debut in the opening draw Tuesday night after missing his team’s first eight events due to a hip/groin issue. Laycock fell to a 0-2 record. 

In women’s play, Edmonton’s Val Sweeting swiped a 6-2 victory over EunJung Kim of South Korea. The Tour Challenge champion Sweeting (2-0) broke a 2-2 tie stealing two in the fifth and continued to ride the steal train taking single points in six and seven. Kim fell to a 0-2 record.

Recent Canada Cup winner Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg scored four points in the seventh and held on for a 6-5 win over Anna Hasselborg of Sweden. Both teams are even with 1-1 records.

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 Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. … The Boost National runs through to Sunday afternoon at the Essar Centre.