Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock saw his run at the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling’s Meridian Canadian Open come to an end on Saturday afternoon at the North Battleford Civic Centre.
Laycock and his rink out of the Nutana Curling Club were knocked out of the playoffs in the men’s quarter-finals after losing a 5-2 affair to Brad Gushue’s rink from St. John’s, N.L.
“When we were down two losses on Wednesday afternoon, we would have accepted a quarter-final result at that point,” Laycock said.
“It doesn’t feel great now coming off of the ice after a tough loss, but this was a big weekend for us. Getting into the playoffs at a Grand Slam event is no easy feat and now we have a couple of weeks to work on some things before we head to the provincials in Tisdale.”
Gushue had a phenomenal performance against Laycock as he shot 100 per cent to earn a spot in tonight’s semifinals.
“It was a pretty even game for most of the way I thought,” Team Gushue third Mark Nichols said. “We were just able to capitalize on a couple of mistakes that the other rink made.
“We’ve been pretty consistent but there’s always room for improvement. We’ll need to be extra sharp tonight though.”
The Gushue foursome will be going up Sault Ste Marie, Ont.’s Brad Jacobs at 8 p.m.
The 2014 Olympic gold medalist advanced to the semifinals after an impressive 7-3 win over Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen.
“I think it was another solid team performance for us,” Team Jacobs second E.J. Harnden said. “It’s something we can build off of heading into the semifinals and we’re all really happy with how we played in this one.”
The other semifinal game tonight will see Sweden’s Niklas Edin take on John Morris of Vernon, B.C.
Edin, who was won two Grand Slam of Curling event this year, made quick work of Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher in a 7-1 contest that lasted just five ends.
“We’ve had almost two full days of rest now and we felt like we really didn’t play our best during the knockout phase,” Edin said.
“What we focused on was how to play better in the playoff games from top to bottom. You can never have full control of the final result, of course, but I felt like we played solid from start to finish.”
Morris also won by a score of 7-1, though he was able to steal four points from John Shuster in the sixth end after a botched runback attempt from the American skip.
“It should have been a one or two point game, as it was a much closer battle than what it will look like on the scoreboard,” Morris said.
“The Shuster rink is playing well right now, but we’re very fortunate to have a guy like (fourth stone thrower) Jim (Cotter) playing for us. He’s shooting the lights out right now.”
The women’s quarter-finals will take place at 4 p.m. today and will feature two first-time playoff teams at a Grand Slam event.
Lethbridge’s Casey Scheidegger will take on Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones, while Jacqueline Harrison of Mississauga will play Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni.
The other two matchups will see Anna Hasselborg of Sweden battle Allison Flaxey of Caledon, Ont., while Edmonton’s Val Sweeting goes up against Sudbury’s Tracy Fleury.
