News Players' Championship

TORONTO — There’s no doubting Jeff Stoughton.

Stoughton, who will be stepping back from competitive curling following the Players’ Championship, landed right on the button with his final shot in the eighth end to score the winning single 5-4 over Glenn Howard Thursday night at the season-ending Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event.

Stoughton, a four-time Grand Slam champion, earned his first victory of the tournament to sit at 1-2 in the round-robin and stay in the mix. 

“A huge win for us,” Team Stoughton lead Connor Njegovan said. “Obviously we had a slow start to the event, we needed to win tonight and we go it done.”

Not only was it vintage Stoughton making classic shots on the ice, the Winnipeg skip also made it a “Throwback Thursday” night parting his hair down the centre and having his team sport vintage Team Manitoba jackets during the players’ introductions.

“The guys were talking about it earlier so we did the old Throwback Thursday, the old look from when we won the worlds and the Brier in 1996 and we had the old Manitoba jackets out for warm-up and everything just for something to do,” Stoughton said. “It was fun.”

Njegovan got the ball rolling while they were playing at their previous event in Grande Prairie, Alta., last month.

“We were sitting in Grande Prairie and just talking about Jeff stepping back and we’ve got to do something good for the last event of the year,” Njegovan explained. “I came up with the idea and surprisingly Jeff bought into it and said he’s going to do it. So I grew out my hair for the last month and pulled it off tonight and it looks absolutely terrible.”

Stoughton made an open draw for two in the first end and stole a point in the second for an early 3-0 lead. Howard (1-2) took one in the third, Stoughton blanked the fourth and settled for a single in fifth to regain the three-point advantage.

Howard, from Penetanguishene, Ont., picked up a three-ender in the sixth to tie the game. Stoughton blanked the seventh to set up the dramatic final frame. 

“We got off to a good start, not a really bad end in six but we just couldn’t get a rock in the right spot and gave up a pretty easy three-ender there but got the blank in seven and had the hammer coming home and made my last one,” Stoughton said. “It was a pretty well-played game.”

Elsewhere, Calgary’s Kevin Koe (3-1) stole a point in the sixth to take the lead and swiped three more in the seventh to ice a 7-3 victory over Sven Michel of Switzerland (0-4). 

“That was a tough game, I mean any win is a good win,” Team Koe second Brent Laing said. “We played a couple decent ends and just missed a shot here or there. We struggled a bit with draw weight and where to put the broom but hung in there well and put some pressure on them in the seventh end and fortunately he missed his last one and that’s how it goes.”

Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen climbed to a 4-0 record following a 5-1 win over Niklas Edin of Sweden in a rematch of last month’s Syncrude Elite 10 final. Ahead 2-1, McEwen blanked three consecutive ends before taking three in the sixth. Edin, the reigning world champion, dropped to 0-4 in the tournament. McEwen, who beat Edin for the Elite 10 title, aims to win the Players’ Championship to complete a career Grand Slam.

Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., prevailed 5-4 over Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher. Gushue misfired his final shot in the eighth to give up a steal and force an extra end but didn’t make the same mistake twice and drew for the winning single in the additional stanza. Gushue improved to a 3-1 record while Bottcher’s record is even at 2-2.

Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers also picked up a 5-4 extra-end win after making an open hit for a single against Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Carruthers is 1-2 while Jacobs has a 2-1 record.