PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. — It’s Throwback Thursday at the Princess Auto Elite 10 with Jeff Stoughton turning back the clock in his one-time return.
The four-time Grand Slam champion from Winnipeg, who stepped back from competitive curling two years ago, is skipping the special Elite 10 Select squad and sits atop of the Pool B standings picking up six points on the opening day of round-robin action.
Stoughton moved up to a 2-0 record with a 1-up victory over new Brier champ Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., during Draw 3 during the evening draw at the Civic Centre.
The one-time Team Stoughton also includes past Grand Slam winners David Nedohin, Nolan Thiessen and Jamie Korab. Stoughton’s Elite 10 Select rink also defeated Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock earlier Thursday.
Korab said it felt good to get out to a hot start.
“My wife said it to me — she’s a curler as well, she’s been to the Scotties — ‘Jamie, you guys have got a good team here. If you guys actually go in and try, you can do well,’” said Korab, who won the 2006 Olympic gold medal with Gushue. “At the end of the day to win one game and lose the other or make a shootout would be have been the ideal but to come out and play Laycock, they’re a great team who lost the Saskatchewan tankard final, and then to come out against my friends who just won the Brier, it’s pretty cool to get those two wins.
“Really, it would be tough to say, ‘Yeah, we’re going to get two wins going into it,’ but we played well, got some breaks and it turned out to be great.”
It wasn’t the best of starts for Stoughton, who opened with the hammer. Gushue fired a runback double with his last to prevent the Selects from winning the end and Stoughton was just a little wide on his final draw to give up a steal.
Stoughton tied it up in the second end hitting his own to pop out two counters on an amazing shot and the team hammed it up.
Facing four in the third, Gushue looked to make a double for the push but was unable to pull it off to concede the end.
Gushue stole one back in five when Stoughton looked at two counters and his runback went wide. Stoughton scored in six making a great double on his first skip stone to sit two and didn’t need to throw his last as Gushue crashed on a guard.
An incredible in-off double by Gushue on his last in seven drew level again.
Gushue hit and gently rolled in eight for shot rock and Stoughton saw just enough to push it out and score with the hammer coming home.
Korab said the team did say to each other they felt like they had nothing to lose going into the event.
“We’re the four retired guys in a sense that they slapped together, but at the same time we’re all four good individual curlers and the field like this in match play lends itself to us,” he said. “If it was a straight-up curling game we’re probably going to give up a bad end or one or two bad ends and that’s what costs you the game. But in match play you have a bad end and Brad made an in-off to lie three, which would have scored three, still only one skin. So the format lends itself to favour us a bit better. …
“The main thing is we’re having fun and I think that’s why we’re loose out there. I think the other teams think they should beat us. Nolan lives in Texas now, he hasn’t thrown a rock since the sweeping summit this summer, and we’re all only playing in a league once a week so they should beat us. There’s more pressure on them, which I think helps us as well.”
Gushue won his first career Canadian men’s curling championship Sunday in his hometown of St. John’s, N.L., and earned a shootout win over Team Carruthers earlier. Tom Sallows is filling in at lead on Team Gushue this week for Geoff Walker, who is out with a shoulder injury.
Elsewhere, Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is in first place in Pool B climbing to a 2-0 record with a 2 & 1 victory over Calgary’s Kevin Koe.
“It was a really good day,” Jacobs said. “We played pretty well. I think we got a little bit better as the day went on and really comfortable with the ice conditions.”
Jacobs also earned a 1-up win over Sweden’s Niklas Edin earlier thanks to a great double to score in the final end.
Koe (0-1-1) has alternate Scott Pfeifer subbing for lead Ben Hebert, who is out with a knee injury.
Toronto’s John Epping stole three consecutive ends to take a 2 & 1 win over Peter de Cruz of Switzerland. Epping now holds three points after falling to Edin earlier while de Cruz has two points with a shootout win over Koe.
NOTES: The Princess Auto Elite 10 is the fifth event of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season and features a match play format where teams compete to win the most ends per game by either scoring two or more with the hammer or stealing at least one without the hammer. … Blank ends result in loss of hammer and there are no carryovers. … The champion will earn an invite to the season-ending Humpty’s Champions Cup running April 25-30 at WinSport Arena in Calgary. … Teams also earn points toward the Rogers Grand Slam Cup, awarded to the overall season champion. … The Princess Auto Elite 10 runs through to Sunday at the Civic Centre.
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