CHATHAM, Ont. — The new-look Reid Carruthers team is finding success in a hurry.
Carruthers, teaming up with longtime Winnipeg rival Mike McEwen, is off to the men's final of the Elite 10 after beating John Epping of Toronto on Saturday night in semifinal action.
The game went to a shootout and McEwen delivered the winning shot.
Carruthers will face Brad Gushue of St. John's in the men's final on Sunday. Gushue beat Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., in the other semi.
The women's final will be an all-European contest between Anna Hasselborg of Sweden and Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland.
Hasselborg downed Ottawa's Rachel Homan, while Tirinzoni knocked off Winnipeg's Jennifer Jones in the semifinals.
Originally a men's invitational, the Grand Slam series added a women's division to the Elite 10 this season.
The tournament uses a unique format.
Points are scored in match play by either counting two or more rocks (with the hammer) or stealing at least one rock (without the hammer).
Teams earn three points for a regulation win, two points for a shootout win and one point for a shootout loss. The top six teams overall, regardless of pools, qualified for the weekend playoffs.
The Elite 10 has three additional unique rules: Stopwatches are banned, tick shots cannot be performed on guards sitting on the centre line until the fifth rock of play and teams have four minutes of thinking time per end.
The Canadian Press
