GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. — Brad Gushue and his Canadian club are all tuned up for the HearingLife Tour Challenge playoffs as they climbed to an 11-0 record on the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season.
Gushue, who went undefeated through the Boost National to capture his 14th Grand Slam title two weeks ago, won his fourth game in as many days at the Coca-Cola Centre with a 7-3 victory over Bruce Mouat’s Scottish squad Friday in the men’s round-robin finale.
Trailing by one, Gushue iced the game in the seventh end with a double takeout to count five points.
Team Gushue finished as the No. 3 seed and will meet No. 6 Mouat (3-1) in a rematch during Saturday afternoon’s quarterfinals (Sportsnet 360; 2 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. local time).
Meanwhile, Matt Dunstone drew to the four-foot circle to score the winning single in the eighth end to edge Reid Carruthers 6-5 in an all-Canadian clash.
Dunstone (3-1) secured the No. 4 spot and will face Switzerland’s Team Schwaller. Carruthers qualified at 2-2 thanks to a superior draw-to-the-button shootout score and takes on undefeated Niklas Edin’s Swedish side (4-0).
Italy’s Team Retornaz (4-0) await the winner of Saturday’s morning tiebreaker between Team Epping and Team Koe (both at 2-2).
Epping stayed in the mix with a 7-4 victory over Scotland’s Team Whyte (1-3).
Switzerland’s Team Brunner (1-3) ended on a winning note with a 6-3 decision against Canada’s Team Horgan (0-4).
MEN’S QUARTERFINALS
• Retornaz vs. Tiebreaker winner (Epping/Koe)
• Dunstone vs. Schwaller
• Edin vs. Carruthers
• Gushue vs. Mouat
TIER 2 RESULTS
• Hoestmaelingen 7, McEwen 2
• Gauthier 6, Kleibrink 1
• Shuster 9, Stocker 3
• Sluchinski 6, Webb 1
UP NEXT
The final women’s round-robin game wraps up Friday’s action at 10 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. local time on Sportsnet East and Sportsnet NOW.
NOTES
The HearingLife Tour Challenge is the second event on the 2022-23 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling calendar with two tiers and a total of 64 teams. Both tiers feature 16 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams. … The top eight teams overall advance to Saturday afternoon’s quarterfinals. The semifinals are set for Saturday evening with both finals on tap for Sunday.
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