Gushue off to good start at Grand Slam National
St. John's skip defeats Winnipeg's Mike McEwen in 1st match
Brad Gushue of St. John's, N.L., opened the third Grand Slam of Curling event of the season by beating Winnipeg's Mike McEwen 7-6 in an extra end on Tuesday in his first match at the National.
Gushue started strong, building a 3-0 lead over the first two ends and was up 6-4 after seven before McEwen scored a deuce to tie it in the eighth.
Gushue went undefeated through the first two Grand Slams of the year — the Masters in October and the Tour Challenge in September.
In other Day 1 action, Kevin Koe of Calgary downed Scotland's Greg Drummond 7-3, Toronto's John Epping beat China's Rui Liu 5-3, Winnipeg's Jason Gunnlaugson doubled up Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., 6-3, and South Korea's Chang-Min Kim defeated Winnipeg's Reid Carruthers 7-3.
On the women's side, Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg shut out Switzerland's Alina Paetz 7-0 in the afternoon draw.
China's Binhyu Wang beat Allison Flaxey of Caledon, Ont., 6-3 and Edmonton's Val Sweeting downed Binia Feltscher of Switzerland 9-5. Tracy Fleury of Sudbury, Ont., edged Ottawa's Rachel Homan 5-4 in an extra end in the lone women's evening draw.