Gushue Advances Through Grand Slam Quarters
Brad Gushue (photo: Stan Fong, Hardline Curling) of St. John's plays Calgary's Brendan Bottcher Saturday evening on Sportsnet in HearingLife Tour Challenge Semifinals.
Gushue won 7-2 over Winnipeg's Reid Carruthers in the afternoon quarterfinals at the Gale Centre in Niagara Falls as the 8-team single knockout championship round bracket was whittled down to four.
Gushue opened scoring with a pair in the first end, with Carruthers getting two back in the second end. Gushue finished at 3-1 was the 2nd seed while Carruthers and his team of Brad Jacobs, Derek Samagalski and Connor Njegovan finished 2-2, advancing to the playoffs on the cumulative pre-game shootout.
New for this year, each player throw two rocks with the best score counting for a combined team total, with Gushue posting 10.4 cms among their four players. Carruthers had a poor start to the week, 0-2 after the first two days and a shootout near the bottom of the field, leaving things bleak for the team. A strong finish to the week saw Carruthers win their last two games, 6-2 over John Shuster and 4-3 against Scotland's Ross Whyte, along with strong second efforts from all four players in the shootout to finish with 23.1 cms.
Gushue scored two in the third end, then stole a single in the fifth end and two more in the sixth end for the quick win to set up a rematch against Calgary's Brendan Bottcher, won 6-5 by Gushue.
In the other semifinal, Whyte plays Italy's Joel Retornaz. Whyte won 8-3 over Matt Dunstone of Winnipeg in the quarterfinals while Retornaz won 6-2 over Sweden's Niklas Edin.
In an all-Canadian matchup, Kerri Einarson of Gimli playing Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg and Sweden's Anna Hasselborg playing Jenninfer Jones of Winnipeg in the women's semifinals, available on Sportsnet alongside the men's semifinals through their Around-the-Rings coverage starting at 7:30 pm Eastern Time (9 pm Newfoundland Time)
Gushue won 7-2 over Winnipeg's Reid Carruthers in the afternoon quarterfinals at the Gale Centre in Niagara Falls as the 8-team single knockout championship round bracket was whittled down to four.
Gushue opened scoring with a pair in the first end, with Carruthers getting two back in the second end. Gushue finished at 3-1 was the 2nd seed while Carruthers and his team of Brad Jacobs, Derek Samagalski and Connor Njegovan finished 2-2, advancing to the playoffs on the cumulative pre-game shootout.
New for this year, each player throw two rocks with the best score counting for a combined team total, with Gushue posting 10.4 cms among their four players. Carruthers had a poor start to the week, 0-2 after the first two days and a shootout near the bottom of the field, leaving things bleak for the team. A strong finish to the week saw Carruthers win their last two games, 6-2 over John Shuster and 4-3 against Scotland's Ross Whyte, along with strong second efforts from all four players in the shootout to finish with 23.1 cms.
Gushue scored two in the third end, then stole a single in the fifth end and two more in the sixth end for the quick win to set up a rematch against Calgary's Brendan Bottcher, won 6-5 by Gushue.
In the other semifinal, Whyte plays Italy's Joel Retornaz. Whyte won 8-3 over Matt Dunstone of Winnipeg in the quarterfinals while Retornaz won 6-2 over Sweden's Niklas Edin.
In an all-Canadian matchup, Kerri Einarson of Gimli playing Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg and Sweden's Anna Hasselborg playing Jenninfer Jones of Winnipeg in the women's semifinals, available on Sportsnet alongside the men's semifinals through their Around-the-Rings coverage starting at 7:30 pm Eastern Time (9 pm Newfoundland Time)