CAMROSE, Alta. — Qualifying through the A-side in the Meridian Canadian Open is supposed to be beneficial.
Rachel Homan and Allison Flaxey sprinted to the women’s quarterfinals while Brad Jacobs and Jason Gunnlaugson also went 3-0 through the men’s division to reach the playoffs. All four punched their tickets Thursday giving them a full day off while their opponents continued to slug it out on the ice.
Team Jacobs was the only A-qualifier left standing following Saturday’s quarterfinals though. The 2014 Olympic gold medallists from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., fired on all cylinders — shooting 93 percent as a unit — as they slammed Reid Carruthers’s Winnipeg club 7-3 in just six ends.
So then, what was the secret formula and how did Team Jacobs spend their day off?
“We just talked a little bit about the first three games and some of the learning we took out of it,” Team Jacobs second E.J. Harnden said. “We had a good practice and then we just relaxed a little bit. I think all of us are still shaking off a little bit of rust after being off for a month. Your body is more sore than it usually is because of the time off.
“It was nice to get that rest and just make sure we were taking advantage of it, having conversations about what the ice was doing, still watching the ice and still having some really good conversations around how we wanted to play today and some of the things to look out for. I thought we did a really good job of preparing ourselves for success here today.”
It was a textbook start for Jacobs by scoring deuces in one and three while limiting Carruthers to singles in two and four to lead 4-2 at the break. Jacobs hit and rolled in for a three count in the fifth to put the contest out of reach and Carruthers shook hands after settling for another single in six.
“It was a good game. I thought we played pretty solid,” Harnden said. “We got a few breaks and I think the nice thing is that we took advantage of them. That’s the key in this event.
“When you get a break you need to take advantage of those opportunities and I think that was the key today. We did a really good job of taking advantage of the opportunities that we were given.”
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Jacobs will now play Swiss Olympic rep Peter de Cruz in the semifinals. De Cruz scored two in the eighth end to defeat Team Brendan Bottcher 7-6. The Edmonton squad had Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock subbing at skip this week with Bottcher away.
It’ll be an Olympic preview in the other men’s semifinal match between Sweden’s Niklas Edin and Kevin Koe’s Calgary team. Edin edged Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen 3-2 in an extra end while Koe eliminated Gunnlaugson, from Winnipeg, 6-3.
Calgary’s Chelsea Carey clashes with EunJung Kim of South Korea and Jennifer Jones meets Michelle Englot in an all-Winnipeg team contest in the women’s semifinals.
The men’s and women’s semifinals go down at Encana Arena at 6 p.m. MT. Watch live on Sportsnet ONE and online at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) or gsoc.yaretv.com (international).
The Meridian Canadian Open is the fourth tournament — and third major — of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season. The preliminary round featured a triple knockout format where teams had to win three games before they lost three in order to qualify for the weekend playoffs.
NOTES: Winners of the Meridian Canadian Open earn berths to the season-ending Humpty’s Champions Cup running April 24-29 at Calgary’s WinSport Arena. … Points are also up for grabs for the Bonus Cup, awarded to the overall season champions.