News National

PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. — Jeff Stoughton’s quest to complete a career Grand Slam at the National continues with a 6-4 win over Brad Jacobs during Saturday’s quarterfinals at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre. 

Stoughton lost his first couple of games during round-robin play and has now won four straight. 

The 2011 world champion from Winnipeg held the hammer coming home with a one-point lead but with Jacobs sitting two counters Stoughton’s sweepers needed to drag their final rock near the button. Jacobs, from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., finished runner-up to Glenn Howard in December’s Canadian Open.

Stoughton is now set to face Calgary’s Kevin Koe in the evening semifinals after the reigning Masters champion ousted the previously undefeated Rob Fowler of Brandon, Man., 4-3. Koe broke a 2-2 tie in the sixth with a single steal and swiped another point in the seventh. Fowler, who went 5-0 through round-robin play, had the hammer in the final frame but managed just a single.

The other semifinal sees Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen meet Edmonton’s Kevin Martin. McEwen scored three in the opening end and stole a trio in the seventh during a 7-1 thrashing over Niklas Edin of Sweden while Martin edged Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., 5-4 in a battle of the past two Olympic gold medallists. Martin remains undefeated after taking the No. 1 seed for the playoffs with a 5-0 round-robin record.

Earlier, Gushue stole three in the eighth to beat Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock 6-3 in the morning tiebreaker to reach the quarterfinals.

The final is set for Sunday.