Team Jacobs win sets up battle of the Brads at Olympic trials final

Two of Canada’s golden curlers will meet in the final of the 2021 Tim Hortons Curling Trials with a spot at the Beijing Winter Games awaiting the winner.

Brad Jacobs, the gold medalist at the 2014 Winter Olympics, defeated Kevin Koe 8-3 Saturday afternoon in just six ends to set up a battle against Brad Gushue, the gold-medal winning skip at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin.

“That was a huge surprise,” Jacobs said after cruising past Koe. “What can I say? We put a lot of rocks in great spots, and we took advantage of a couple opportunities that were handed to us.”

Jacobs did most of his damage in two ends. After blanking the first two ends, Jacobs broke the deadlock with a double takeout to score four.

After a single and another blank end, Jacbos once again threw a near perfect double takeout to lead Koe 8-1 after five ends.

“It sucks. I thought we were ready to play. unfortunately, we strung together a few misses in a row in one end and got in trouble,” Koe said following the loss.

“We missed probably three,three and a half shots that end and they made us pay.”

Koe represented Canada at the 2018 Winter Games in Sochi after winning this event 2017. Not going back to the pinnacle of curling was weighing heavily on Koe following the loss.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet. (It) came to a quick thud out there. It sucks. I thought were were good enough to get it done. I don’t think that score is indicative of how we were playing,” he said.

Jacobs’ win sets up a stellar matchup between two of the most dominant skips in recent Canadian curling memory.

Gushue and Jacobs have won pretty much all there is to win at the elite level and they will have to put their nearly perfect play during the trials to the test against one another to decide who the next men’s curling Olympians will be.

“It’s two great teams,” third Marc Kennedy said. “Even if we would have lost today, it would have been two great teams in the final. Men’s curling in Canada is just at a level that I haven’t ever seen before.

“Whoever ends up winning is going to be an incredible representative for Canada.”

McCarville capitalizes on Einarson miss to advance to Olympic trials semifinals

Krista McCarville needed an extra end to keep her Olympic dream alive.

A sheet over from the men’s semifinal, McCarville and Kerri Einarson played defensive curling before McCarville was able to take advantage of an Einarson miss to win 4-3 in 11 ends.

With Einarson down 3-2 in the 10th end, McCarville’s final stone rubbed against her own guard, opening an opportunity for Einarson to draw for the win.

She watched her stone sail through the house untouched and gave McCarville the hammer in the extra end where she was able to hit an Einarson stone and seal the win.

“I thought I was very lose when I let go of it,” Einarson said. “And the way it was curling, I thought it was good. But it wasn’t.”

McCarville stepped into the hack and calmly threw her stone as if she’d been through the same circumstance dozens of times before.

“A little pressure, but I mean, I’m the skip. I have to make those shots,” McCarville said. “As soon as the rock stopped I felt like that was my shot. I knew that was the one I wanted.”

Einarson won earlier in the day over Casey Scheidegger to keep her hopes alive after finishing 4-4 in round-robin play. However, the luck eventually ran out for the two-time defending Scotties champion Saturday afternoon.

“We gave it our all this week,” Einarson said.

McCarville now plays Jennifer Jones in the women’s semifinal. The winner goes on to face Tracy Fleury in the final Sunday morning.