Koe downs Gushue to improve to 2-0 at Players' Championship

Kevin Koe improved to 2-0 at the Players' Championship by beating Brad Gushue 10-8 in the night draw Wednesday at the Grand Slam of Curling tournament.

Grand Slam of Curling event taking place in Toronto

Skip Kevin Koe, pictured above at the Roar of the Rings in December, defeated Brad Gushue to improve to 2-0 at the Players' Championship on Wednesday. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

Kevin Koe improved to 2-0 at the Players' Championship by beating Brad Gushue 10-8 in the night draw Wednesday at the Grand Slam of Curling tournament.

Koe's Calgary rink used a six-point sixth end to secure the victory over Gushue of St. John's, N.L.

Gushue started his day with an 8-4 win over Edmonton's Brendan Bottcher at Mattamy Athletic Centre in a rematch of this year's Tim Hortons Brier final.

Sweden's Niklas Edin, who's coming off a world championship win over Guhsue in Las Vegas last weekend, is also 2-0. Edin scored three in an extra end to down Winnipeg's Mike McEwen 9-6 in the late draw. He beat Winnipeg's Jason Gunnlaugson 6-4 in his first match of the day.

Winnipeg's Mike McEwen, pictured here, fell 6-3 to Bruce Mouat of Scotland in round-robin play at the Grand Slam of Curling Players' Championship in Toronto on Wednesday. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

In other night draw play, Bottcher downed Toronto's John Epping 7-1 in six ends, American John Shuster topped Winnipeg's Reid Carruthers 8-5 and Kyle Smith defeated Bruce Mouat, both from Scotland, 8-3 in six ends.

American Jamie Sinclair, Edmonton's Laura Crocker and Winnipeg's Jennifer Jones lead the women's standings at 2-0 while Ottawa's Rachel Homan is winless through her first two matches.

Jones needed just five ends to rout Nina Roth of the U.S. 9-2 in the late afternoon draw, Crocker downed Homan 9-3 in six ends, and Sinclair edged Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni 6-5.

Sinclair defeated Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa 7-1 earlier in the day while Crocker outscored South Korea's EunJung Kim 10-8.

Calgary's Chelsea Carey bounced back from an 8-7 loss to Tirinzoni to defeat Fujisawa 10-2 in her second game.