Facing a must-win situation, Brad Jacobs came through and booked a tiebreaker spot at the Champions Cup in Calgary.
In the first Grand Slam of Curling event of the season, the Jacobs rink, which includes third Marc Kennedy, second E.J. Harnden, and lead Ryan Harnden will face Yannick Schwaller on Sunday afternoon in tiebreaker action at the five-day event.
The Jacobs rink picked up an 8-2 win over Peter De Cruz in six ends on Saturday night to wrap up round robin action with a 2-2 record.
The win meant a day three split for Jacobs after a loss earlier in the day.
Against De Cruz, Jacobs took the lead early on, scoring a pair in the second end after blanking the opening end with the hammer.
After De Cruz got on the board with a single in the second end, Jacobs increased the lead with three in the third end before sealing the win with three more in the sixth end.
In the morning draw, the Jacobs rink opened the day with a 6-5 extra end loss to Matt Dunstone.
Jacobs jumped out to an early lead with a pair in the opening end.
Dunstone went ahead with three in the second end before extending the lead with a steal of one in the third end.
After the teams traded singles in the subsequent ends, Jacobs pulled to within one with a single in six and tied the game at five with a steal of one in the eighth end after Dunstone blanked the seventh.
For Schwaller, the tiebreaker spot came after the Switzerland-based rink dropped a 5-3 decision in Saturday’s evening draw against Niklas Edin.
The winner of the Jacobs/Schwaller tiebreaker game, scheduled for 2 p.m. Sault time Sunday, will move on to face Brendan Bottcher in quarter-final action at 4 p.m.
Semifinal games in both the men’s and women’s divisions are set for Sunday night with championship games scheduled for Monday afternoon.
With 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams entered in the event, the top six teams earned playoff spots.
Teams were divided into pools of six teams each with the top team in each pool earning an automatic berth in Sunday’s semifinal.
Brad Gushue, who finished first in Pool A with a 4-0 record, and Kevin Koe, who finished first in Pool B with a 3-1 record, have already earned semifinal berths.
The other quarter-final on the men’s side on Sunday will see Edin face Bruce Mouat.