News National

OSHAWA, Ont. — Calgary’s Pat Simmons prevailed against Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., 7-2 in a Brier final rematch during the last men’s round-robin draw Friday to advance to the playoffs at the National. 

Simmons flipped the script from a disappointing finish at the Masters where his team went 1-3 and missed the playoffs to a 3-1 round-robin result to play another day.

“We got a late start, we didn’t work very hard like a lot of the other teams obviously that are playing in these events and it showed last Slam,” Simmons said. “I think we all had a little reality check and we worked pretty hard between then and now and obviously that’s starting to show.” 

Simmons scored two in the first, three in the fifth and two more in the seventh end while limiting Jacobs (3-1) to singles in two and six.

“We didn’t have a very good draw so we knew we had work to do today otherwise we’d be destined for a tiebreaker,” Simmons said with a smile. “We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game but it was nice to play our best game of the year so far that’s for sure.” 

Simmons now faces Toronto’s John Epping, who also qualified at 3-1 and cruised into the playoffs with a 9-2 victory over American John Shuster (0-4). Epping said his team was due after missing the playoffs at the past two Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling events. 

“We needed to come out and really have a good weekend,” he said. “It’s been kind of a rough go so far, really close in a lot of spiels to qualify and I think in the last two Slams we had to win our last game and we’d be in the playoffs and hadn’t done so it was nice to come out in a must-win game and kind of close the deal and play really well. Now we get to play and live for another day.” 

Epping added that it’s awesome to play in an event close to home.

“We have a lot of friends and family here, which is extra special,” he said. “It’s always nice to play in front of your home crowd.”

Meanwhile, Glenn Howard (3-1) of Penetanguishene, Ont., made his last shot coming home for a single to secure a playoff spot at 3-1 with a 5-4 win over Mike McEwen of Winnipeg. McEwen, who is the defending champion and won the Masters earlier this month, missed the playoffs at 1-3.

Howard goes up against Calgary’s Kevin Koe, who qualified at 3-1 with a 10-4 rout over Jean-Michel Menard, of Quebec City, Que. Menard heads home finishing out of the playoffs with a 1-3 record. 

Sweden’s Niklas Edin earned an 8-3 win over Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher (1-3) to climb to a 2-2 record but it wasn’t enough to stay in the mix as eight teams finished with 3-1 records. 

Jacobs, of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., meets Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers and Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., goes up against Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud in the other quarterfinal games with the draw set for Noon ET on Saturday (Watch on CBC). 

The final round-robin draw of the National features four women’s games and starts at 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT. Watch live on Sportsnet East, Ontario and Pacific. 

The National is the third stop — and second major — of the 2015-16 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season and runs through to Sunday evening at the General Motors Centre. Previously a men’s invitational, the National expanded this year to include a women’s division for the first time in the event’s history.