SASKATOON –
Vice-Captain Marc Kennedy says Team Jacobs are just trying to follow their captain’s lead at the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials.
The plan works well as another near-perfect performance from Brad Jacobs has the ice to a one-place win at the Winter Games.
Jacobs used a pair of double in-off outs for big scores in an 8-3 rout by Kevin Koe in the men’s semi-final on Saturday afternoon. Jacobs, who will face Brad Gushue in the final, scored four points in the third end and added four in the fifth.
“Brad has been fantastic and I think when you feel like your captain is going to do it all it helps everyone to be a little more relaxed,” Kennedy said. “It’s sort of the story of the week.”
Later that night, Jennifer Jones beat Krista McCarville 8-3 to advance to the women’s final against Tracy Fleury.
“These are the times you play for,” said Jones, who, like Jacobs, won Olympic gold in 2014 in Sochi, Russia.
Koe, who represented Canada at the Pyeongchang 2018 Games but missed the podium, conceded after just six ends.
“It happened with a quick thud over there,” Koe said. “It sucks.”
Jacobs went through the competition at the SaskTel Center with the only hiccup of a 7-6 end-line loss to Gushue earlier in the week. He was in full control against Koe after the teams opened with a pair of whites.
“This is just the best team performance I can remember we have had at this point,” said Jacobs. “I think we all feel very confident heading into tomorrow’s final.”
The women’s final was scheduled for Sunday morning and the men were scheduled to play in the evening. The winning teams will wear the maple leaf at the Beijing Games from February 4 to 20.
Gushue had the same 7-1 round robin record as Jacobs, but took the seed with a head-to-head victory.
Both teams have a lot of Olympic experience. Kennedy won Olympic gold at the 2010 Vancouver Games with Kevin Martin and returned to the Games in 2018 with Koe.
Jacobs and his striker EJ Harnden and Ryan Harnden won in 2014, while Gushue and third-placed Mark Nichols won the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy.
Koe only managed a single in the fourth and scored two runs in the sixth with the game essentially over.
“This is the best I’ve seen with Brad Jacobs’ team in a few years,” said Koe second-in-command John Morris. “They have that look in their eyes that they’re really hard to beat.”
In the afternoon’s tiebreaker, McCarville scored a single in an extra inning for a 4-3 win over Kerri Einarson.
Einarson, who beat Casey Scheidegger 8-6 in an early morning tiebreaker, had a chance to beat McCarville in the 10th end but was heavy with his draw for two.
“I thought it was very tight when I let it go,” Einarson said. “The way it was curling, I thought it was good but it wasn’t.”
Jones secured first place in the semifinals as the No. 2 seed. Fleury went undefeated in the round robin to advance directly to the final.
In the semifinals, Jones scored two in the eighth end and forced McCarville to attempt an angle-raise double in the ninth to score his two. McCarville was unable to clear the stones and abandoned a flight of two.
“Lucky for us, we missed a few hiccups that kind of transformed the momentum of the game in our own way,” said Jones.
Einarson, McCarville and Scheidegger were tied for third in the round robin standings at 4-4.
The men’s semi-final was moved to the afternoon from the evening due to the women’s tiebreaking schedule.
The change allowed both semi-finals to be televised and keep the long distance games on the same sheet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on November 27, 2021.
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