Cutdown Day: Dunstone and Jacobs take top seeds as 6 teams make the cut at Brier
CBC
An off-day for Reid Carruthers at the Montana's Brier in Kelowna, B.C., became much busier on Thursday night.
The Manitoba skip picked up the last playoff spot in Pool A when Manitoba's Matt Dunstone edged Canada's Brad Gushue 7-6 to earn the top seed in the nine-team group.
Gushue took the second seed and Carruthers earned the third spot thanks to a tiebreaker advantage over Northern Ontario's John Epping. Carruthers watched the game in his coach's room at the team hotel near Prospera Place.
"We're just driving to top up on some groceries," he said when reached shortly after the draw. "Because we're staying longer now."
The three teams will play in the qualification round Friday.
The Page playoffs are on tap Saturday and the final is set for Sunday night.
The Pool B playoff picture was finalized after the evening draw.
Alberta's Brad Jacobs (8-0) took the top seed after scoring three points in an extra end for a 9-6 win over Saskatchewan's Mike McEwen (7-1).
Nova Scotia's Owen Purcell (5-3) picked up the third seed with a 7-3 win over Ontario's Sam Mooibroek (4-4).
Dunstone gave up three points in the third end when he missed an angle-raise attempt. Gushue stole a point in the fourth for a 4-1 lead, but Dunstone later pulled even with a runback double for a deuce in the seventh.
Down 6-5 but in control with hammer, Gushue made an uncharacteristic error in the ninth end when his stone stayed in the rings on a blank attempt. That gave Dunstone hammer with the game tied and he scored a single when Gushue's draw was light.
"It was all about being the best team over the course of 10 ends," Dunstone said. "That was our mindset going into today and I thought we did that. That's why you saw the result that you did."
The win gave Dunstone (7-1) hammer in the 1-2 qualifier Friday against McEwen. Gushue (7-1) will face Jacobs in the other 1-2 qualifier.
"We're still in it and we're still playing really good," said Gushue, who's aiming for a record fourth straight Brier title.
