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Team Jacobs convincing in National opener (17 photos)

A big win over Brendan Bottcher marked Team Jacobs' return to the Essar Centre

It was likely the ideal start for Brad Jacobs and his team from the Community First Curling Centre.

As the National, the third event on the Grand Slam of Curling schedule, opened at the Essar Centre on Tuesday night, the Jacobs rink, which includes third Ryan Fry, second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden, cruised to a 7-2 victory over Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher in six ends in the opening draw.

After scoring a pair in the opening end, Jacobs took a commanding lead thanks to a triple in the fourth end before stealing two more in the fifth.

“At that point (of the steal), they’re really trying to get some rocks in play and generate some offence and we’re trying to keep it clean,” Jacobs said. “E.J. made a great angle-raise on the guard that really cleaned that end up for us.”

A big victory was one the Jacobs rink was pleased with for the opening day.

“It feels really good,” Jacobs said of the start. “We played quite well. We got some breaks, had some misses out of those guys and went to an easy win. We’ll take it.”

After a tough finish at the Home Hardware Canada Cup that saw the Jacobs rink lose in a tiebreaker game after starting the event 3-1, the local skip said the motivation was high heading into Tuesday.

“We’re very motivated here,” Jacobs said. “We didn’t do as well as we wanted to last week. We let some games slip away. Nothing makes us hungrier than losing.”

Jacobs said the feel in front of the home fans again was an exciting opportunity.

“We had chills when we were walking out,” Jacobs said. “It gives you goosebumps. It makes your heart race a little bit. There’s no feeling like that. It’s awesome to be at home and playing in front of our hometown fans. They support us wholeheartedly in everything that we do. I couldn’t be happier.”

The last time the Jacobs rink was in action at home was the 2014 National in which the local rink fell to Mike McEwen in the tournament final.

Team Jacobs is back in action on Wednesday night against Team Horgan in the evening draw, which begins at 7 p.m.

In other action, Brad Gushue made his return to action and beat Sudbury’s Tanner Horgan 9-4 in seven ends. After taking a 3-1 lead in the second end, Gushue stole three in the third end to take a commanding lead. Horgan would get two back in the fourth and steal one more in the fifth but a steal of two by Gushue in the seventh end sealed the win.

In women’s action on Tuesday, Anna Sidorova scored three in the fourth end which would ultimately be a difference-maker as the Russian team picked up a 6-5 win over Scotland’s Eve Muirhead.

The other women’s game on Tuesday saw Val Sweeting beat Binia Feltscher 8-6 in an extra end. Feltscher forced the extra thanks to a pair in the eighth end.

The round robin resumes on Wednesday morning with 10 teams in action for the second draw. On the men’s side, David Murdoch takes on Peter De Cruz and Charley Thomas faces Mike McEwen. Women’s action for Wednesday’s morning draw sees Anna Hasselborg face Team Kim, Silvana Tirinzoni faces Kerri Einarson and Rachel Homan faces Chelsea Carey. The morning draw begins at 8:30 a.m.

The National features 15 men’s and 15 women’s teams each broken into three pools of five teams each for the round robin. The top eight teams qualify for the playoff round. The winners of the event will earn spots in the Champions Cup, the final Grand Slam of Curling event of the season which features the winners of all of curling’s major events.


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Brad Coccimiglio

About the Author: Brad Coccimiglio

A graduate of Loyalist College’s Sports Journalism program, Brad Coccimiglio’s work has appeared in The Hockey News as well as online at FoxSports.com in addition to regular freelance work with SooToday before joining the team full time.
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