Some well-earned rest and relaxation over the holidays may have been just what John Shuster and his rink from Duluth, Minn. needed.
Last year’s worlds bronze medalist punched his ticket into an ‘A’ event final at the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling’s Meridian Canadian Open at the North Battleford Civic Centre on Wednesday afternoon following a 5-3 win over Brendan Bottcher.
“After playing in the Champions Cup at the end of April last season, we had a short break before we started off on a really aggressive schedule this year,” Shuster said.
“We were little bit worn down from the start of the year and the break at Christmas marked the first time that we have had more than two weeks off since Labour Day. Those couple of weeks off have really reenergized us.”
The Shuster rink, which also features third Tyler George, second Matt Hamilton and lead John Landsteiner, had another solid team performance that was a continuation of their narrow 8-7 extra-end win over Reid Carruthers on Tuesday night.
“We’ve just been making shots and we’ve felt like that we’ve had decent control of those games,” Shuster said.
“It always feels good when you can play like that against two of the top teams in the world.”
Carruthers was able to rebound from his loss to Shuster with a 7-3 victory in a ‘B’ event contest over Steve Laycock.
That loss was the second of the Canadian Open for Laycock, as his Saskatoon rink falls to the ‘C’ event and will need to win the event in order to make the playoffs.
The other men’s game saw Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen start his week off with a 5-3 win over John Morris.
In women’s play, Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni advanced to an ‘A’ final after holding off a late charge from Allison Flaxey in a 7-5 contest.
Meanwhile, Kerri Einarson had a pair of steals in the final two ends as the defeated Tracy Fleury by a score of 5-3.
With the loss, Fleury’s Sudbury-based foursome have fallen into the ‘C’ event and will be knocked out of the tournament with one more loss.
Wednesday’s action will conclude at 6:30 p.m. and will be highlight by a marquee matchup in the men’s ‘A’ semifinal between Brad Gushue and Brad Jacobs.
Two other ‘A’ semifinals will also take place. Niklas Edin will take on McEwen while Kevin Koe matches up with Greg Balsdon.
Their will also be a pair of ‘B’ event affairs to round out the draw.
Saskatoon’s Bruce Korte will go up against Scotland’s Kyle Smith, while Toronto’s John Epping will face Edmonton’s Charley Thomas.
