NISKU, Alta. — It was “Crazy Eights” night Wednesday at the Co-op Canadian Open as all four winning teams in Draw 8 scored totals of eight points.
Team Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., cruised past Calgary’s Team Kevin Koe 8-2 while Calgary’s Team Brad Jacobs defeated Team John Shuster of the United States by an identical score.
Meanwhile, Winnipeg’s Team Matt Dustone scored five in the sixth end to double up on Saskatoon’s Team Mike McEwen 8-4 and Team Marco Hösli stole four in the fifth end to wrap up an 8-1 victory over Team Yannick Schwaller in an all-Switzerland showdown.
Gushue and Jacobs improved to 2-0 records at the halfway point of round-robin play. Dunstone, McEwen, Hösli and Schwaller are all level at 1-1. Koe and Shuster fell to 0-2 records and are on the brink of elimination.
“I thought we played a really good game,” Gushue said. “We played a perfect first end and got a two and then got a little lucky in the second end with Kevin missing the draw. We played a good end but you expect Kevin to make a draw to the four-foot. Once we were up 5-0, it was really just kind of keeping things a little more simple, not give up a big end and we were able to do it.”
Indeed, it was singles going steady for three ends and Gushue put an exclamation mark on the match with another deuce in the sixth.
It’s the first Grand Slam of Curling event for Gushue with Brendan Bottcher, who joined as second after the team parted ways with E.J. Harnden last month. Gushue said integrating Bottcher into the lineup has been a lot easier than he thought it would be.
“He’s really easy to get along with us,” Gushue said. “I love his perspective on the game and his feedback on strategy, ice and shot selection. He’s a very good weight judge, which I’m thrilled about.
