Brad Gushue thrilled a near-capacity hometown crowd Wednesday afternoon by posting a 6-3 victory over Winnipeg's Reid Carruthers at the Kioti National in St. John's.

The teams shook hands after Carruthers made a draw for a single in the seventh end.

Gushue improved to 2-0 in round-robin play at the Mary Brown's Centre. It's the first major curling event in the city since 2017, when Gushue won the national men's championship for the first time in his career.

Earlier, Winnipeg's Kaitlyn Lawes made a game-winning draw to the button for a 5-4 victory over Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni. It's Lawes' first competition since she returned from maternity leave.

Sweden's Anna Hasselborg defeated South Korea's Eun-Ji Gim 6-2 and Japan's Momoha Tabata beat Xenia Schwaller 6-4. Satsuki Fujisawa topped Sayaka Yoshimura 6-3 in an all-Japanese matchup.

Winnipeg's Mike McEwen defeated Switzerland's Marco Hoesli 5-2 and Ottawa's Rachel Homan beat Christina Black of Halifax 6-3.

Germany's Marc Muskatewitz outscored Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller 8-6 and Scotland's Ross Whyte dumped Switzerland's Michael Brunner 7-2.

In the evening session, John Shuster of the U.S. beat Scotland's Bruce Mouat 6-3 with three points in the eighth end and Sweden's Niklas Edin handed Winnipeg's Matt Dunstone an 8-4 loss.

Scotland's James Craik edged Italy's Joel Retornaz 4-3 and Calgary's Brad Jacobs came back and defeated Norway's Magnus Ramsfjell 5-4 to wrap up the four-draw day.

Competition at the Grand Slam of Curling event continues through Sunday.