Brad Jacobs and Brad Gushue have squared on numerous occasions over the last few years.
The latest meeting between the Olympic gold medalists went in favour of Jacobs and his Sault Ste. Marie rink Wednesday night at the North Battleford Civic Centre, as they picked up a 5-4 win in a men’s ‘A’ semi-final game at the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling’s Meridian Canadian Open.
“Pretty much any game that you play out here in the Grand Slam series is going to be a tight battle,” Jacobs said.
“We were able to have the hammer coming home after a couple of forces and deuces, which is exactly what we were hoping for in this one.”
The 2014 Olympic gold medalist, who is joined on his rink by third Ryan Fry, second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden, entered this week’s event after winning the Boost National in his hometown last month.
He kicked off play in North Battleford earlier in the day Wednesday with a 5-4 victory over Scotland’s Kyle Smith.
“I thought we came out strong in the first game, and other than one bad end against Kyle, I felt like we had a solid team performance throughout the entire day and we want to keep on improving from here,” Jacobs said.
“The ice conditions here have been fantastic so far and it really makes things easier for everybody out here when you have a good idea of what’s going to happen when you put the broom down.”
Jacobs will go up against Kevin Koe in an ‘A’ event final on Thursday, with the winner clinching a spot in Saturday’s quarter-finals.
Koe was dominant Wednesday evening as he cruised to an 8-2 win over Greg Balsdon.
Sweden’s Niklas Edin also earned a spot in an ‘A’ final game against John Shuster following a back-and-forth 7-5 contest with Mike McEwen.
“I think the key for us was just getting off to a solid start,” Edin said. “They forced us to one point in the first end, but we were able to get a deuce in the third end and that really allowed us to control things as they were chasing us most of the time.”
In ‘B’ event action in the men’s bracket, Bruce Korte and his Saskatoon rink turned in a stellar performance as they defeated Scotland’s Kyle Smith in an 8-5 affair.
“We did give up three points to them in the fifth end, but that’s the nature of the beast with the five-rock rule,” Korte said.
“We’re quite happy with how we played tonight. We were able to get multiple points whenever we had the hammer, and the consistency has been there for us so far.”
The other game in the ‘B’ bracket saw Charley Thomas make a clutch draw to the button on his final shot in an extra-end as he earned a 6-5 win over John Epping.
Epping, who won the Canadian Open in Yorkton in December 2015, joins Smith in the ‘C’ bracket and needs to win his remaining games in order to make it to the playoffs
Play will resume at the Civic Centre at 8 a.m. Thursday with five women’s games.
There will be three ‘A’ semi-final games as Jacqueline Harrison faces Kelsey Rocque, Bingyu Wang goes up against Val Sweeting and Brianne Meilleur takes on Michelle Englot.
Two ‘B’ event games will also take place as Anna Hasselborg squares off with Anna Sidorova, while Jennifer Jones matches up with Chelsea Carey in a matchup of the last two Scotties Tournament of Hearts winners.
