Undefeated Jacobs, Koe & Gushue top table at Masters
LLOYDMINSTER, Sask. — Brad Jacobs, Kevin Koe and Brad Gushue all wrapped up the Masters round-robin on positive notes Friday.
The trio skipped their respective squads to victories during Draw 13 to all finish tied at the top of the table with identical 4-0 records.
Jacobs, from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., ground out a 4-2 victory over Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock and locked down the No. 1 playoff seed with a superior pre-game draw-to-the-button shootout total.
“We wanted to finish out the round-robin on a high and maintain our confidence going into the playoff round,” Team Jacobs second E.J. Harnden said. “Just be able to focus on making shots, staying loose, staying focused and I think we did a pretty good job about that tonight.”
“You still want to keep your focus but you don’t want to give it too much and drain yourself too much,” he added. “I think we did a really good job of balancing, staying a little bit on the looser side out there but also staying focused at the same time.”
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After back-to-back blanks to start, a crowded house in the third end forced Laycock to finally draw to the button for a single.
The reigning Olympic champion Jacobs also blanked a couple ends waiting patiently to score and it paid off in the sixth. Jacobs hit and slid behind a pair of staggered guards with his first skip stone to sit a couple. Laycock drew to the back of the eight-foot circle for second shot but Jacobs played followed the leader and nudged the rock back far enough to score three points and grab a 3-1 lead.
Laycock fell behind by four in the seventh after attempting a raise, but didn’t get the correct angle going high across the counter to give up a steal. Jacobs sealed the victory in eight with Laycock limited to just one.
“We were joking about it out there a little bit it’s odd to see that many blanked ends in a five-rock rule game,” Harnden said. “At the same time, we just kept saying to ourselves let’s wait for the right opportunity, let’s make some shots so if we get our opportunity we’ll take advantage of that. We did that a little bit later in the game when we were able to take control from there.”
Laycock was eliminated with a 1-3 record.
Meanwhile, Koe of Calgary capped off the round-robin cruising into the quarterfinals with a 6-2 win in just five ends over Niklas Edin (3-1) of Sweden.
“It’s always nice to keep playing well,” Koe said. “We’ve been playing well this week so you don’t want to throw a bad game in there and throw a bit of doubt in your mind going into tomorrow. Obviously, both teams already in the playoffs but we wanted to win and play well and that’ll set us up to get hammer in the quarters at least, so that’s always a big plus.”
Edin struck first with a deuce in the opening end and forced Koe to a single in the second. The defending Masters champion Edin struggled from there though and Koe hopped on board the steal train swiping one in the third and pairs of points in four and five.
“They missed some shots and really had some bad luck,” Koe said. “Some shots that should’ve gone closer their way and they just missed by a hair. We kept the pressure on them. It was a little tricky out there but the ice is great and it’s been a great event so far.”
Gushue, from St. John’s, N.L., scored four in the second and took a 6-3 set over Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud (2-2). The Tour Challenge Tier 1 champions’ winning streak in the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling has now gone up to 11 games.
Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen (2-2) earned a gritty 4-3 victory to eliminate Scotland’s Kyle Smith (1-3).
Toronto’s John Epping (1-3) ended his run on the right side with a 7-3 win over John Morris (0-4) and his crew from Vernon, B.C.
Ulsrud meets McEwen in a tiebreaker at 8 p.m. MT on Sportsnet NOW (Canada) or gsoc.yaretv.com (international). The winner will play Jacobs in Saturday’s quarterfinals.
The rest of the men’s playoff bracket is set: Koe clashes with Winnipeg’s Jason Gunnlaugson, Gushue goes up against Peter de Cruz of Switzerland and Edin meets Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers. Watch Saturday at 3 p.m. MT on Sportsnet.