Brad Gushue continues strong play at curling Masters

Brad Gushue continued his strong start at the Masters to improve to 2-0 on Wednesday, in Lloydminster, Sask. 

The St. John's, N.L. skip ran into early trouble against John Schuster of the United States before turning things around in the fourth and fifth ends to seal a 9-7 win.

On the women's side, Rachel Homan fell to 1-1 after Casey Scheidegger's strong play handed the Ottawa rink a 7-5 loss.  

Clancy Grandy of Caledon, Ont., lost 7-6 in extra ends to Eve Muirhead of Scotland.

Kevin Koe of Calgary improved to 3-0 with a commanding 7-1 win over John Morris of Vernon, B.C.

Steve Laycock of Saskatoon suffered a 8-3 defeat to Peter De Cruz of Switzerland, who bounced back from an earlier loss to Winnipeg's Reid Carruthers. 

In the day's final draw, Sweeden's Niklas Edin beat Toronto's John Epping 6-2, Norway's Thomas Ulsrud,stormed back to beat Winnipeg's Mike McEwen 5-4 in the final frame and Brad Jacobs of Saulte Ste. Marie, Ont., defeated Carruthers 8-4. 

Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni needed only six ends to beat Jacqueline Harrison of Mississauga, Ont. 8-1. While Winnipeg's Kerri Einarson took down Bal Sweeting of Edmonton 7-2 in only seven ends.    

In earlier action, Jennifer Jones dispatched Switzerland's Alina Paetz 8-2 after beating Sherry Middaugh of Coldwater, Ont., 7-3 on Tuesday.

Middaugh fell to 0-2 after losing 7-3 to Swiss skip Silvana Tirinzoni, while Kerri Einarson beat Michelle Englot 8-3 in an all-Winnipeg affair.

Swedish curler Anna Hasselborg won 5-4 over American Jamie Sinclair and Scotland's Eve Muirhead edged Russia's Anna Sidorova 6-5.

On the men's side, Olympic champ Brad Jacobs defeated Pat Simmons 5-3, Norway's Thomas Ulsrud held off Scotland's Kyle Smith to win 7-6 and Winnipeg's Jason Gunnlaugson rallied to beat Toronto's John Epping 7-5.

The Grand Slam event continues until Oct. 29. CBC Sports will stream the women's quarter-finals on Saturday and the men's final on Sunday.