Gushue on fire and ice at the Brier
Canadian juniors in playoff picture for world titles
REGINA — Brad Gushue and his Team Canada rink improved to 5-0 at the 2018 Tim Hortons Brier with a 9-5 win over Nova Scotia in Tuesday’s afternoon draw.
The defending Canadian men’s curling champions scored two points in the seventh end and wrapped up the win with two more in the ninth after Jamie Murphy and his Halifax rink held Gushue to task for much of the game.
Gushue maintained first place in Pool A over Alberta and the wild-card team, tied for second at 4-1.
“It was a good game. I thought we played pretty solid, a couple little mistakes that we need to clean up, but I like how our team is throwing it and we are looking forward to tomorrow,” Gushue said. “Two games, so we’ll rest up tonight, get a good dinner and be ready to go.”
Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs, Manitoba’s Reid Carruthers and Ontario’s John Epping improved to 5-1 atop Pool B with wins in Tuesday’s night draw.
Jacobs defeated Quebec 7-3, Epping topped Prince Edward Island 11-4 and Carruthers beat New Brunswick 7-3. Quebec’s Mike Fournier and New Brunswick’s James Grattan both dropped to 2-4 and P.E.I’s Eddie MacKenzie fell to 1-5.
With a new format that includes a wild-card team for the first time, Gushue said he altered his approach at this Brier.
“I believe we did a little bit, or me personally,” he said. “I took it a little lighter early on in the week, especially this year with the two Olympic trials and a big push, there’s a burnout factor that you have to take into account. From an intensity standpoint, we are starting to ramp it up.”
Gushue was the only undefeated skip remaining in Regina after Manitoba and Northern Ontario suffered losses in Tuesday’s early draw.
Carruthers suffered his first loss in a 10-5 defeat to Ontario and Jacobs fell 8-4 to host Saskatchewan. Steve Laycock’s team opened the scoring with four in the second end and added a three-point fifth end en route to improving its record to 3-2.
In other night-draw action, Nunavut (0-6) remained winless with a 10-3 loss to Saskatchewan (4-2).
Wild-card skip Mike McEwen and his Winnipeg-based team came away with a 10-3 victory in eight ends over Northwest Territories (2-3) in the afternoon draw. McEwen capitalized on the mistakes by Yellowknife skip Jamie Koe, who struggled with the ice early in the game.
Alberta was under pressure to keep pace with the leaders, and Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher delivered with a 7-5 win over Yukon. Bottcher plays Gushue and McEwen on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, British Columbia defeated Newfoundland and Labrador 12-6. Both teams finished the day tied at 1-4. ABERDEEN, Scotland — Canadian skips Tyler Tardi and Kaitlyn Jones both earned wins Tuesday to stay in the playoff picture at the World Junior Curling Championships.
Tardi and his rink from Langley edged Norway 8-7 in an extra end in the afternoon draw to improve to 4-2. Jones (5-1) and her Halifax team downed Russia 9-6 in her only match of the day.
Canada’s men’s team opened Tuesday with a 7-5 loss to China. It is tied for second place with Switzerland and the United States.
Jones is in sole possession of second place behind Sweden (6-0) on the women’s side.
Round robin play continues through Thursday. The top four teams of each gender advance to playoffs.