Gushue and Fleury clinch victories to remain undefeated in curling events | The Canadian News

Brad Gushue earned a win Wednesday morning to close in on securing a playoff spot at the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials, while Brendan Bottcher’s team was all but eliminated after their fourth loss.

Gushue remained undefeated at 5-0 after notching a 9-4 win over Matt Dunstone at SaskTel Center. Brier’s reigning champion Bottcher fell to 1-4 after losing a 9-7 decision to defending champion Kevin Koe.

A two in the first set gave Gushue early control and he took the game with three points in the eighth set. His St. John’s, NL track has performed despite one of the toughest opening schedules of the nine men’s teams on the field.

“We are playing well, we are not playing well,” Gushue said. “We have been lucky, I am not going to lie to you. We’ve had some jumping bugs that we haven’t seen as often.

“So there has been a bit of luck. (Also) there were some timely takes on our part. “

Gushue’s team shot an impressive 97 percent overall, helped by Geoff Walker’s perfect game. Dunstone’s quartet shot 92 percent.

In other opening games, Brad Jacobs defeated Jason Gunnlaugson 7-5 and Mike McEwen edged Tanner Horgan 6-5. Jacobs was only in second place at 4-1 with McEwen and Koe next at 3-1.

John Epping, who was inactive during the morning session, came in fifth at 2-2. Gunnlaugson and Horgan fell to 1-3 and Dunstone, the only entry on the field based in Saskatchewan, was winless at 0-5.

The top three teams at the end of the free-for-all game on Friday night will advance to the weekend’s playoffs.

A 5-3 record was good enough to make the cut at the 2017 Ottawa tests. While it’s too early to mathematically eliminate either team, a fourth loss will make the weekend’s game a long shot at best.

Five women’s teams, including defending champion Rachel Homan, started the day with three losses each.

In the afternoon draw, Homan, who missed the podium at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, dropped an 11-5 decision to Laura Walker that left her clinging to feeble playoff hopes at 1-4.

Walker Vice President Kate Cameron was allowed to play after a PCR test for COVID-19 came back negative, Curling Canada said in an email. Cameron missed Monday’s game due to an unspecified illness and the team was absent on Tuesday.

Tracy Fleury, the only undefeated woman to jump 5-0, needed an extra finish to beat Jacqueline Harrison 9-6. Jennifer Jones beat Kelsey Rocque 8-5 and Krista McCarville used a single in the 10th to beat Kerri Einarson 6-5.

Jones was only in second place at 5-1 and McCarville and Einarson were tied at 3-3. Casey Scheidegger, who had the day off, was 2-3 with Walker and Harrison.

Rocque (1-4) joined Homan in last place.

The playoffs and semi-finals are scheduled for Saturday. The winners of Sunday’s finals will represent Canada at the Beijing Olympics from February 4-20.

Koe also missed the podium at the 2018 Games. Canadians John Morris and Kaitlyn Lawes won gold in mixed doubles, a discipline that made its Olympic debut in Pyeongchang.