Carruthers, Gushue reach quarter-finals undefeated
SAULT STE MARIE, Ont. — Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers and Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., are entering the quarterfinals at the National with perfect records.
Both Carruthers and Gushue won their respective draws on Thursday at the Grand Slam curling event to improve to 4-0.
Carruthers blew open a close game against Edmonton’s Charley Thomas in the seventh end by scoring three to take the match 7-3. Gushue used a deuce in an extra end to beat Brendan Bottcher of Edmonton 6-4.
Carruthers will play John Epping of Toronto in today’s quarter-finals after Epping scored three in the eighth end to beat Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen 7-6 in the evening draw. Gushue faces the winner of this morning’s tiebreaker between Thomas and Bottcher.
The semifinals are tonight, and the final goes Sunday afternoon.
In other men’s draws, McEwen downed John Shuster of the United States 6-2, Calgary’s Kevin Koe got past Scotland’s David Murdoch 6-4, Peter De Cruz of Switzerland beat Epping 8-5, John Morris of Vernon defeated Koe 8-2, Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock edged Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., 5-4 and Niklas Edin of Sweden routed Shuster 7-2.
Jacobs topped De Cruz 3-2 in the other evening draw to set up a matchup against Morris in the quarters while Koe will face Edin to round out the schedule.
Edmonton’s Val Sweeting is the only undefeated woman at 4-0 following a 6-5 extra-end victory over Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones. Ottawa’s Rachel Homan suffered her first loss of the event, falling 6-4 to Tracy Fleury of Sudbury, Ont.
Chelsea Carey, the 2016 Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion, downed Allison Flaxey of Caledon, Ont., 7-3 in the evening draw to set up a tiebreaker against Jones this morning. Binia Feltscher of Switzerland takes on Anna Hasselborg of Sweden in the other tiebreaker. Hasselborg beat Feltscher 6-2 earlier Friday.