News National

Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., kicks off his quest to defend the Boost National championship in his own backyard against Winnipeg’s Jason Gunnlaugson.

The Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling announced the draw schedule for its third event and second major of the season taking place Nov. 14-19 at the Essar Centre.

Jacobs will meet Gunnlaugson during Draw 2 Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET and the reigning champ is pumped up for his hometown event.

“It’s going to be a really special week for us,” Jacobs said last month during the Masters. “We are the defending champs and get to play in front of our home crowd again. Whenever you get the opportunity to do that it’s always exciting. I’m really just looking forward to playing and hopefully, lots of people come out, watch and cheer us on.”

The reigning Olympic champion Jacobs, ranked as the top seed in Pool B, also takes on Scotland’s Greg Drummond during the sixth draw (Wednesday, Nov. 15, 8 p.m. ET), Calgary’s Kevin Koe in the 10th draw (Thursday, Nov. 16, 8 p.m. ET) and Winnipeg’s William Lyburn in the 13th draw (Friday, Nov. 17, 4 p.m. ET) during round-robin play.

Purchase the special Jacobs pass for access to all four round-robin draws featuring Team Jacobs.

Full-event, weekend and single draw tickets are also available at essarcentre.ca, calling 1-866-775-9422 or visiting the Essar Centre box office (269 Queen Street East).

The Boost National features 15 of the top men’s teams and 15 of the top women’s teams from around the world. Teams will play four round-robin games with the top eight overall qualifying for the weekend playoffs. This event is especially important for Canadian teams as it’ll be their final major tune-up before next month’s Olympic Trials in Ottawa.

All the action gets underway Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. ET featuring Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers clashing with Chang-Min Kim of South Korea, Edmonton’s Val Sweeting playing Binia Feltscher of Switzerland, Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones going up against Alina Paetz of Switzerland and Allison Flaxey of Caledon, Ont., facing China’s Bingyu Wang.

For the full draw schedule, CLICK HERE.

It’ll be the third time in four years the Boost National makes its way to Sault Ste. Marie. It was an electric atmosphere at the Essar Centre a year ago when Jacobs defeated Carruthers to capture the men’s title to send the crowd into a frenzy. Winnipeg’s Kerri Einarson enters as the reigning women’s champion topping Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland in last season’s final.

The winning teams of the Boost National qualify for the season-ending Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling tournament, the Humpty’s Champions Cup, running April 24-29, 2018, at Calgary’s WinSport Arena.

Teams also earn points towards the Bonus Cup, awarded to the overall season champions following the conclusion of the Players’ Championship.

Can’t make it to Sault Ste. Marie? Live television coverage begins Nov. 16 on Sportsnet with online streaming available at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and gsoc.yaretv.com (international). For the full TV and online streaming schedule, CLICK HERE.