Gushue, Jacobs, Carruthers lead men after two days at Grand Slam of Curling

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. — Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., downed Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock 6-4 in Wednesday’s late draw at the National, keeping pace with reigning Olympic champion Brad Jacobs and Canada Cup winner Reid Carruthers atop the men’s standings.

Gushue, who made his season debut on Tuesday night after being sidelined with a hip injury for much of the year, sits in a tie for first place with Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and Winnipeg’s Carruthers at 2-0. 

Gushue scored a deuce in fourth end and added two more in the seventh to seal his win over Laycock (0-2).

Jacobs downed Tanner Horgan (0-2) of Sudbury 6-3 while Carruthers doubled up Mike McEwen (0-1) of Winnipeg 6-3 in other late-draw action.

Carruthers’s win was his second of the day. He also topped American John Shuster 7-5 in the afternoon.

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In the women’s draw, Winnipeg skip Jennifer Jones (1-1) bounced back from an 8-3 loss to Switzerland’s Binia Feltscher earlier in the day to edge Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg 6-5.

Jones, who’s coming off a Canada Cup victory last weekend, scored four points in the seventh end. 

Val Sweeting (2-0) of Edmonton beat EunJung Kim of South Korea 6-2 in the other evening game.

The playoffs begin Saturday and the finals are set for Sunday at the $250,000 event.

The Canadian Press