Brad Gushue of St. John’s and Kerri Einarson of Manitoba will play in Thursday’s semifinal game at the Home Hardware Canadian mixed doubles championship in Calgary.
Einarson and Gushue defeated Laura Walker of Alberta and Kirk Muyres of Saskatchewan 8-6 Wednesday night in a 3-vs-4 Page playoff game.
The loss eliminated Walker and Muyres, who won the 2018 national mixed doubles champs, while Gushue and Einarson will face the team of Danielle Schmiemann and John Morris Thursday afternoon (5:30 p.m. NT). The winner of that matchup will play in the championship final later that night (10:30 p.m. NT) against Manitoba’s Kadriana Sahaidak and Colton Lott.
Sahaidak and Lott earned a bye directly to the final with a 7-6 win over the Schmiemann-Morris combo in Wednesday’s 1-vs-2 Page playoff.
ll four teams had played earlier in the day in Page seeding games, with Einarson and Gushue losing 8-5 to Sahaidak and Lott despite holding a 5-2 lead after five ends.
Schmiemann and Morris had edged Walker and Muyres 6-5 in the other seeding game.
It was a busy Wednesday for Gushue — the four-time Brier-winning skip — and Einarson, who skips the reigning Canadian women’s champions. After playing eight games through the first six days of what had been a 35-entry competition, they had three on Wednesday, beginning with an 11-2 victory over the husband-wife team of Jennifer Jones and Brett Laing in the morning quarter-final round..
“I think at the beginning of the week we would have taken still being on the ice on Thursday. Obviously would love to be in the final, but we played a good game tonight,” Gushue told Curling Canada after the Wednesday-night victory.
"We’re looking forward to tomorrow, it’s going to be another battle and another long day. This is certainly a bit of an experience after playing one game a day for so long and then all of a sudden going back-to-back-to-back. So I’m certainly feeling it right now.”
The playoff phase of the event actually began Tuesday night with first-round elimination games, including one that saw Newfoundland and Labrador’s representatives, Mackenzie Mitchell and Greg Smith, lose 8-3 to Sahaidak and Lott, who have been particularly tough when taking on teams that include players based out of Newfoundland; the Manitobans defeated defending Canadian mixed doubles champions Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant 8-7 in a Wednesday-morning quarter-final. Gallant is also the longtime second on Gushue’s men’s rink out of St. John’s.
Mark Nichols, the third for Gushue, was also entered in this Canadian mixed doubles competition, but he and partner Briane Meilleur failed to make the playoffs.
The other member of Gushue’s regular foursome, lead Geoff Walker, didn’t compete this past week, but did have ties to both sides in Wednesday’s 3-4 Page game since Laura Walker is his wife.
Gushue and Einarson are guaranteed at least the $20,000 third-place cash prize. Top prize is $50,000, with the runner-up pairing collecting $30,000.
Besides money and a national title, also on the line is a berth as Canada’s representatives in the 2021 world mixed doubles championship which will be played in May at a location to be determined.
If he and Einarson do win it all today, it will give Gushue a Canadian curling championship in a third event; besides the four Brier men's crowns, he also won the Canadian junior men's title in 2001.
Their latest win also gives Einarson and Gushue a berth into the Canadian Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials, beginning Dec. 28 (location TBA), where Canada’s mixed doubles team for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing will be determined.
Sahaidak and Lott earned the first of two available berths to the event after winning the Page seeding game and guaranteed themselves a top-three finish. Morris already qualified with Rachel Homan (who is not competing in Calgary because of her pregnancy), meaning the final berth available went to the Page 3-4 winner.
“I think it’s great to have it. I think (for) both of us, our first goal and intentions are to win (Olympic berths) it with our (four-member) teams. But if that doesn’t pan out, I like our chances and the fact that we don’t have to worry about that now is good,” Gushue said.
