Jacobs to meet Mouat in Masters men’s final
OAKVILLE, Ont. — Brad Jacobs is one win away from completing a career Grand Slam. Bruce Mouat is one win away from winning a third consecutive title in the premier series.
It’ll be a must-see Masters men’s final when Jacobs and his crew from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., take on Mouat and his Scottish squad Sunday at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex.
Mouat won back-to-back Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling men’s titles last season taking the Champions Cup and Princess Auto Players’ Championship in the Calgary bubble. Jacobs, who won seven Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling men’s titles in his career, is just missing the Masters from completing the checklist.
Coincidentally, Jacobs needed to defeat the only team that has won all six different events in the series. Jacobs dispatched Team Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., with ease, however, hammering a 9-4 victory during Saturday’s semifinals.
Gushue misfired his last in the fourth end to open the metaphorical door of the house and allow Jacobs to draw into the paint to score a game-breaking four points. Jacobs forced Gushue to just a single in the fifth and with blood in the water, went for the finish in the sixth nailing a takeout for three points that brought out the fist bumps.
Meanwhile, Team Mouat eliminated Edmonton’s Team Brendan Bottcher 6-4 and improved to a scorching 29-1 record in Oakville since forming in 2017. Mouat won the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard and Oakville Fall Classic back-to-back in 2017 and won the Tankard once more last month defeating Jacobs in the final no less.
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Meanwhile, Winnipeg’s Team Jennifer Jones will face defending champions Team Tracy Fleury of East St. Paul, Man., in the women’s final.
Jones scored two in the sixth and stole a five-count in the seventh to sweep past South Korea’s Team Eun-Jung Kim 9-3 while Fleury doubled up Team Alina Kovaleva from Russia 8-4.
After losing two straight to slip to the C side early, the nine-time GSOC women’s champion Jones won five consecutive games with elimination on the line to reach the women’s final.
Fleury captured her first career GSOC women’s title at the 2019 Masters in North Bay, Ont., just down the road from her hometown of Sudbury. The Masters was cancelled last season and this year’s edition is the first GSOC event with fans back in the stands since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
UP NEXT
The women’s final is Sunday at Noon ET followed by the men’s final at 4 p.m. ET. Watch both games on Sportsnet, Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).
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. … Tickets are available at masters.goigniter.com.
