Team Newfoundland skip Brad Gushue looks on during a match against Team Nunavut at the Brier in Kingston on March 3, 2020.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
The championship round picture became clearer Wednesday at the Tim Hortons Brier with two spots still up for grabs entering the evening draw.
Manitoba’s Jason Gunnlaugson and Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs had afternoon wins to take the last two Pool B spots behind Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher and Brad Gushue of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Gunnlaugson beat Nova Scotia’s Jamie Murphy 9-7 and Jacobs dumped Nunavut’s Jake Higgs 10-3 at the Leon’s Centre. Gunnlaugson secured third place at 5-2.
“We knew we would have had them back again in a tiebreaker if we didn’t win and that would have been no fun,” Gunnlaugson said. “So it was good to get the win. It was a real good battle.
“They flipped the hammer a couple times and we just kept battling and got some key deuces.”
The top-ranked Jacobs, meanwhile, made the cut at 4-3. He lost three of his first four games but enters the championship round on a three-game win streak.
“We welcome every bit of adversity and hardship,” Jacobs said. “It’s the Canadian championships. It’s not supposed to be easy.”
Bottcher defeated Prince Edward Island’s Bryan Cochrane 9-6 to remain unbeaten at 7-0 and Gushue beat Quebec’s Alek Bedard 10-4 to improve to 6-1.
The preliminary round at the national men’s curling championship will close with four Pool A games.
Entering evening play, Team Wild Card’s Mike McEwen and Saskatchewan’s Matt Dunstone had already secured championship round berths with 5-1 records.
Team Canada’s Kevin Koe was 4-2, New Brunswick’s James Grattan and Ontario’s John Epping were 3-3 and British Columbia’s Steve Laycock and Jamie Koe of the Northwest Territories were 2-4.
If a tiebreaker is necessary, it will be played Thursday morning.
In the unlikely event of a four-way tie at 3-4, no tiebreakers would be played since the teams have sub-.500 records. In that case, the Northwest Territories would get the spot based on head-to-head records.
Earlier Wednesday, Newfoundland and Labrador beat P.E.I. 11-8, the Northwest Territories edged New Brunswick 8-6 and B.C. topped Yukon’s Thomas Scoffin 6-3.
Nova Scotia missed the Pool B cut at 3-4. Prince Edward Island was next at 2-5 ahead of Quebec at 1-6 and Nunavut at 0-7. Yukon was at the bottom of Pool A at 0-6.
Preliminary round records carry over into the championship round, which runs through Friday night.
The top four teams will advance to the Page playoffs. The semifinal and final are set for Sunday.