Gushue Defeats Bottcher at Grand Slam Tour Challenge

Brad Gushue of St John's scored two in the 8th end to win 6-5 over Calgary's Brendan Bottcher in HearingLife Tour Challenge day 2 action. Gushue, with Mark Nichols at third, E.J. Harnden at second and Geoff Walker at lead held the #1 spot on the rankings as recently as the beginning of September (Week 6) and look hungry to reclaim it following their win over Bottcher. Bottcher, with Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert recently took over the top spot on the rankings with three event titles to start the season. Bottcher opened scoring against Gushue, getting one in the first end with hammer. Gushue responded with a single point in the second end, with teams trading singles through 5 ends leaving Bottcher up 3-2. Gushue broke through with the first two of the game in the sixth end, with Bottcher matching to hold a one point lead into the final end. For Gushue, the win is their first on the season when down 1 with hammer in the last end, improving to 5-4 over the last 3 seasons, while Bottcher is now 2-1 on the season when up 1 without hammer in the last end and 10-8 over the last 3 seasons. The win for Gushue was their 14th in 32 career meetings against Bottcher, though Gushue has had more success in the Slams, with 10 wins against 7 losses against Bottcher. In their opening game, Gushue defeated Aaron Sluchinski (Airdrie, AB) 8-2 and sits at 2-0 at the top of the standings along with Italy's Joel Retornaz and Ross Whyte of Scotland. Bottcher drops to 1-1 includinig a 4-3 win over Wouter Gosgens of the Netherland. Gushue faces Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller on Thursday and then finishes the round-robin against Norway's Magnus Ramsfjell while Bottcher faces Matt Dunstone of Winnipeg and Korey Dropkin of the United States. Gushue now has a career record of 29 wins and 5 losses in 6 appearances at the HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 1, winning in 2017. While Gushue is sitting fourth overall on the world rankings, and 51 points behind Bottcher, they are only counting two of the allowable three events with a quiet start to the season. With 75 points on the line for winning the HearingLife Tour Challenge, Gushue has the opportuity to jump back into the top spot with 2nd-ranked Bruce Mouat and 3rd-ranked Retornaz all counting three results so far this season. Plays continues through Sunday, with Sportsnet broadcasts beginning on Thursday.