Jacobs, Gunnlaugson jump into B bracket finals at Masters
OAKVILLE, Ont. — Team Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and Winnipeg’s Team Jason Gunnlaugson are through to the B bracket finals of the triple knockout stage in the Masters.
Jacobs beat Toronto’s Team John Epping 6-4 and Gunnlaugson edged Regina’s Team Matt Dunstone 6-5 in an extra end in Draw 10 action Thursday at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex.
Team Jacobs and Team Gunnlaugson, both with 2-1 records, will now face off in Draw 14 Friday with a spot in the quarterfinals up for grabs.
Tied 2-2, Jacobs stole back-to-back single points in the fourth and fifth ends to grab hold of the game. Epping rebounded to score a deuce in the sixth, but Jacobs, whose team shot 91 per cent as a unit, responded taking two points right back in the seventh.
The defending champion Dunstone made an open hit in the eighth end to score three and force OT, however, he missed his last in the extra and Gunnlaugson prevailed.
Masters: Live Scores and Standings | Draw Schedule | Broadcast Schedule
Elsewhere in the B bracket men’s semifinals, three-time reigning world champions Team Niklas Edin of Sweden slammed Team Rich Ruohonen of the United States 9-2 in only five ends. Edin drew to score four in the third end and stole five in the fourth when Ruohonen came up light of the house.
Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte scored four in the second end during a 6-3 victory over Japan’s Team Yuta Matsumura.
Edin, who has won three GSOC men’s titles, and Whyte, who is making his series debut, improved to 2-1 records to reach the B event finals and await the losers from the evening A bracket finals.
Epping, Dunstone, Ruohonen and Matsumura all dropped to 1-2 records and into the C brackets with elimination on the line.
UP NEXT
The Masters continues with Draw 11 at 3 p.m. ET with broadcast coverage on Sportsnet, Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).
TRIPLE KNOCKOUT EXPLAINED
The triple knockout consists of three brackets: A, B and C. Teams must win three games in order to qualify for the playoffs. Each loss drops a team to a lower bracket until they lose three games and are out of the tournament. Two A teams (3-0 records), three B teams (3-1 records) and three C teams (3-2 records) advance to the quarterfinals.
NO TICK ZONE
Teams cannot tick guards off of the centre line while the five-rock, free guard zone is in effect during the eighth and extra ends only.
NOTES
The Masters is the first of five events on the 2021-22 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling schedule and features 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world. … A combined $300,000 prize purse is up for grabs with the winning teams earning $33,000 plus berths into the season-ending KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup. … Triple knockout play runs through to Saturday morning. The quarterfinals and semifinals are also Saturday with both finals set for Sunday. … Tickets are available at masters.goigniter.com.
