News Canadian Open

YORKTON, Sask. — Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen stole four points through the first couple ends and remained in control to win 7-3 Thursday night over Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., and capture a playoff spot in the Canadian Open.

McEwen qualified with a 3-0 record through the triple knockout preliminary round.

It was a battle between this season’s two Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling men’s champions. Gushue defeated McEwen in the Masters final last month in Selkirk, Man., while McEwen beat hometown hero Brad Jacobs for the National title two weeks later in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

McEwen took an early 4-0 lead thanks to a steal of three in the first and one in the second. Gushue recovered and cut the deficit in half with two points in the third, but McEwen matched with a deuce in the fifth to regain the four-point advantage. The teams traded singles through the sixth and seventh ends. 

Gushue (2-1) dropped into the B-side finals for another chance to advance and will play Jacobs (2-1) after the reigning Olympic gold medallist scored four-enders twice during a 12-7 win over Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers (1-2).

“We made two big shots on my last ones in those two ends to score all of those points,” Jacobs said. “We got a lot of rocks in play, obviously both teams were kind of playing aggressive those ends and it worked out that we had shots for big ends and we made them. It’s always nice when that happens.”

Carruthers generated a three-ender in the second to jump ahead 3-1 but his lead was short-lived as Jacobs earned his first score of four in the following end to wrestle away the lead. After Carruthers knotted it up 5-5 with a deuce in fourth, Jacobs reclaimed the lead with a three-ender in the fifth. Carruthers responded with another deuce in the sixth to stay in the mix but the second four-ender by Jacobs in the seventh iced the game.

“It’s frustrating when you score a big end and you let them come back in the game when you had momentum, it kills the momentum a little bit but we knew we just had to keep plugging away,” Jacobs said. “We were in control once we got the four-ender for the remainder of the game. It’s frustrating to let teams back in the game but you need to just hang in there and try to score a deuce back and we were able to do that.” 

Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock (2-1) had the crowd on its feet during a 6-4 win over Glenn Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont. Laycock trailed 2-0 and pulled ahead and away scoring four in the fifth and stealing two in six. The Yorkton-born Laycock held Howard (1-2) to a deuce in seven.

Jim Cotter of Vernon, B.C., picked up two in the final end to earn a 7-6 victory over Sweden’s Niklas Edin. Cotter (2-1) will play Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher (2-1) in the B-qualifiers. Bottcher lost 7-3 to Calgary’s Kevin Koe earlier Thursday.

Scotland’s Eve Muirhead (2-1) scored a three in the seventh to help her team win 6-4 over Julie Hastings (1-2) of Thornhill, Ont., to reach the B-qualifiers in the lone women’s match on the draw.