Mouat Perfect into Slam Final

Scotland's Bruce Mouat (photo: Anil Mungal, GSOC) needed five straight wins to reach Sunday's Grand Slam Final. Mouat cleaned up through the A-event bracket at the HearingLife Tour Challenge in Charlottetown this week, creating a more comfortable route to the final. Mouat, with Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan Jr, won 6-2 over Saskatoon's Mike McEwen in Saturday's semifinals. Mouat start with hammer due qualifying through the A-event bracket, opening the scoring with a single point in the second end. McEwen, with Colton Flasch, Kevin Marsh and Daniel Marsh scored a single point in return in the third end. Mouat broke the game open in the fourth end, scoring four points to jump out to a 5-1 lead. Mouat stole another point in the fifth, then forced McEwen to a single point in the sixth, followed by early handshakes. The game was Mouat's fifth of the week, all wins. It's started Tuesday with a 6-2 decision over countrymates Cameron Bryce, then followed by a 7-1 win over Calgary's Kevin Koe. Mouat finished off the qualifying round with a 5-4 win over Sweden's Niklas Edin on Thursday. After a day off Friday, Mouat returned to the ice Saturday afternoon in the quarterfinals, where they doubled up another Scottish rink, James Craik, 8-4. In contrast, it took their opponent in Sunday's Final, Brad Gushue seven games to reach the final, five wins against two losses. Gushue won 7-3 over Winnipeg's Matt Dunstone in Saturday evening's semifinals. Sunday's Final goes at 11 am Atlantic Time, and can be seen on the Sportnet network.