Brad Gushue and his St. John’s rink might agree they haven’t been half bad through the first two games for their four-game preliminary-round schedule at the Boost National in Conception Bay South.
But Gushue, Mark Nichols, Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker will also remind you there is plenty of work to be done at the Pinty’s Grand Curling event.
Gushue improved to 2-0 at the National Wednesday evening with a 5-1 win over Matt Dunstone’s Regina rink, setting up a matchup this afternoon with another 2-0 rink, that of defending National champion Ross Paterson of Scotland. Paterson downed Brier champion Kevin Koe 6-1 in an abbreviated game Wednesday night, with the skip curling 100 per cent over the six ends that were played.
“We have the defending champs and then the reigning Canadian champs to play, so they’re tough teams,” Gallant told Sportsnet’s Jonathan Brazeau as he looked ahead to today’s 4:30 p.m. game and a Friday-might meeting with Koe.
“(We) just have to be sharp.”
RECAP: @TeamGushue & @TeamPaterson1 continued their strong play in the Boost National men's division climbing to 2-0 round-robin records.
— Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling (@grandslamcurl) December 12, 2019
📝 @JonathanBrazeau | #curling #GSOC https://t.co/zVDrVhhkke
Also at 2-0 in the men’s division is Peter de Cruz of Switzerland.
Four teams in the women’s division are 2-0 — Eve Muirhead of Scotland, Tracy Fleury of Manitoba and two Swiss rinks, Silvana Tirinzoni and Elena Stern. However, not all of the 30 teams — 15 men and 15 women — at the National have yet played two games.
That will change today with four draws, at 9 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
The afternoon draws will be broadcast on Sportsnet, with the night draw on Sportsnet One.
Despite poor weather Tuesday and Wednesday nights, there have been big crowds at the C.B.S. Arena or the first two late draws featuring Gushue and Co.
“It’s awesome to have that support, “ Gallant told Brazeau. “We love playing here, we love playing at home and we just use that to our advantage, feed off of that energy … it helps us immensely.”
The top eight finishers in each division at the end of the preliminary round will advance to Saturday quarter-finals. There is a total of $300,000 in prize money up for grabs.
RESULTS
Scores from Tuesday at the Boost National in C.B.S.:
MEN
- Paterson 6, Koe 1
- Gushue 5, Dunstone 1
- De Cruz 4, Howard 3
- Bottcher 6, Jacobs 3
- Paterson 7, McDonald 2
- Edin 7, Schwaller 5 (ee)
- Mouat 6, McEwen 4
- Matsumura 6, Schwaller 3
- De Cruz 8, Epping 3
WOMEN
- Fleury 7, Wrana 6
- Muirhead 5, Scheidegger 3
- Stern 4, Homan 3
- Silvernagle 8, Yoshimura 2
- Einarson 9, Jones 4
- Fleury 5, Carey 4
- Tirinzoni 7, Rocque 2
- Muirhead 8, Fujisawa 4
- Stern 7, Scheidegger 6 (ee)
- Hasselborg 6, Yoshimura 2
