Brad Jacobs remains undefeated in pool play at National curling slam
Northern Ontario skip improves to 3-0 after thrashing Carruthers on Thursday
Fresh off his first Canada Cup victory last weekend, Brad Jacobs is looking sharp so far at the National Grand Slam of Curling tournament.
The Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., skip moved to 3-0 after thrashing Reid Carruthers' rink (1-3) from Winnipeg 8-1 in pool play on Thursday.
Jacobs' squad jumped out to a 5-0 lead after three ends and scored three points in the sixth and final end.
Team Carruthers notched its lone point in the fifth. The rink is being skipped by Mike McEwen, with Carruthers playing third.
Team Jacobs sits tied atop Pool A with Sweden's Niklas Edin (3-0), while Scotland's Bruce Mouat leads Pool B also with an undefeated record (3-0).
Edin topped Kingston's Scott McDonald 6-4 to stay perfect and Mouat downed Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller (2-2) 8-5.
Also, Glenn Howard (2-2) of Penetanguishe, Ont., beat Toronto's John Epping (1-2) 7-6, hometown skip Brad Gushue (2-1) of St. John's edged Switzerland's Peter De Cruz (0-3) 5-3, Calgary's Kevin Koe (2-1) dumped Saskatoon's Kirk Muyres (1-2) 7-3.
In the early draw, Mouat dominated fellow Scot Ross Paterson (1-2), Winnipeg's Jason Gunnlaugson (2-1) squeaked by Epping, Koe beat Howard 5-4, Carruthers fell to Winnipeg's Braden Calvert (1-2) 6-2 and Schwaller came out on top of an all-Swiss matchup with De Cruz 6-5.
On the women's side, Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni (3-0) won her third straight game in a back-and-forth 7-5 match with Nina Roth (1-2) of the U.S.
Also, Ottawa's Rachel Homan (2-1) was defeated by Eve Muirhead (2-1) of Scotland 8-5, while Winnipeg's Kerri Einarson (2-1) fell 7-5 to Toronto's Jacqueline Harrison (1-2). Homan, Einarson and Muirhead share the lead in Pool C. American Jamie Sinclair (2-1) also topped Japan's Sayaka Yoshimura (1-2) 6-4.
In the morning action, Tirinzoni dominated Edmonton's Chelsea Carey (1-2) 7-2, Winnipeg's Jennifer Jones (1-1) doubled up Yoshimura 6-3, Einarson beat Casey Scheidegger (0-2) of Lethbridge, Alta., 9-4, Sweden's Anna Hasselborg (2-0) downed compatriot Isabella Wrana (0-3) 4-2 and Winnipeg's Tracy Fleury (1-2) eked out a 6-5 win over Satsuki Fujisawa (2-1) of Japan.
Round-robin play continues Friday.