SELKIRK, Man. — Brad Gushue broke a 3-3 tie with a score of four in the sixth end to defeat John Epping 7-3 in Draw 10 Friday morning at the Masters Grand Slam of Curling.
Epping (2-1) opened with a single in the first and a steal of one in the second before Gushue jumped ahead with a deuce in the third and a steal of one in the fourth. Epping added one in the fifth to tie it up.
“We got off to a really slow start, just a little slow waking up, but fortunately we made a couple shots to keep us in the game early and it looked like we could have been down 4-0 or 5-0,” Gushue said. “We got down 2-0 and got a good deuce to get back into the game and came up with a big four-ender and played really strong in the fifth and sixth ends and shifted the momentum of the game.”
The St. John’s, N.L., rink finished the round robin with a 3-1 record in a tough pool that also featured Jeff Stoughton, Glenn Howard and Thomas Ulsrud but Gushue powered through and qualified for the playoffs.
“We looked at our pool coming into this event and there were no easy games. Usually when that’s the case, you’re the easy game,” Gushue said with a smile. “To finish 3-1 in the pool, we’re pretty happy. We know we’re going to be playing now Saturday in the quarters and any time you can qualify in an event like this it’s pretty good. Now it’s just a matter of getting hot in the playoffs.”
Elsewhere, Switzerland’s Sven Michel scored one in the final end to edge Calgary’s John Morris and win 6-5. Morris dropped to a 1-2 while Michel moved up to 3-1.
In the women’s division, Edmonton’s Val Sweeting (3-1) scored three-enders in the second and fourth ends and earned a steal of two in the seventh to win 9-3 over Allison Flaxey, from Listowel, Ont., (1-3).
The Masters continues with Draw 11 action at 1:30 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT featuring Russia’s Anna Sidorova against Edmonton’s Heather Nedohin on Sportsnet East, Ontario, West and Pacific.