The future of Canadian women’s curling looks strong, with teams such as British Columbia's Taylor Reese-Hansen and Alberta’s Serena Gray-Withers making it easy to forget about another Albertan team in Selena Sturmay.
However, with performances like the one Sturmay authored on Friday against Sweden’s Team Anna Hasselborg, she will force her name into the conversation. The Edmonton-based team defeated the reigning Olympic champions 7-6 to punch their ticket to the P&H Masters playoffs in Medicine Hat, Alta.
Both teams entered the match sitting on five points, needing a win in order to clinch a playoff spot. While the performance from either side’s front three wasn’t outstanding, the difference was at skip.
Multiple times in the game, when her team needed her the most, Sturmay delivered. Especially in the fifth end, when she made a great angled double runback to score two points.
For Sturmay’s rink, the Masters marked its first Slam since the 2024-25 season. It’s also the first time the Alberta team has reached the playoffs at a Grand Slam of Curling event.
Friday’s results (Full scores and standings)
Draw 13
Nihira 8, Kobayashi 1
Yan Amsterdam 9, Yamaguchi 5
Gim 8, Park 7
Fujisawa 8, Lloyd 1
Draw 14
Epping 8, McDonald 4
Hoesli 11, Hlushak 4
Sturmay 7, Hasselborg 6
Paetz 8, Kitazawa 6
Draw 15
Gray-Withers 7, Einarson 6 (SO)
Mouat 6, Jacobs 5
Y. Schwaller 6, Waddell 4
Spiller 11, Koe 5
Draw 16
X. Schwaller 6, Reese-Hansen 5
Dunstone 6, Casper 4
Homan 6, Wrana 5 (SO)
Hardie 7, Bottcher 3
Homan's team reaches playoffs still without its best
No matter what happens during the weekend, by making the playoffs, Canada’s Team Rachel Homan has bought more time to figure out their complete game before any panic sets in.
Coming into Friday's game against Sweden’s Isabella Wrana, the 20-time GSOC champion needed just one point to clinch a playoff spot and couldn’t have asked for a better start. Her team stole the first three ends to take a 3-0 lead. Wrana would battle back, though, eventually forcing a shootout with a nice double in the eighth end to tie the game.
Thanks to a new points structure, Homan would’ve had the hammer in the extra end and therefore was guaranteed the point she needed before even throwing her draw to the button in the shootout. She went ahead and pinned it anyway for the win and two points.
The concerning part is the team can’t seem to all play well at the same time. Yes, they’ve all taken steps since the beginning of the year, with Homan’s game really advancing this week. But on a night when Emma Miskew basically made everything, Tracy Fleury seemingly couldn't land a shot.
Even with the up-and-down performances in the lineup, they're so talented that they’re able to win games while being in a slump — something that has to be frustrating for the rest of the field.
Dunstone keeps rolling without Nichols
Unlike at the Co-op Invitational, Canada’s Team Matt Dunstone left no doubt that they deserve to be in the P&H Masters playoffs, cruising to a 6-4 victory over USA’s Team Danny Casper.
The two teams have become a hot topic so far this season. In their previous matchup at the Invitational, there was a little bit of drama between the two squads when Casper’s team celebrated a shot to score early in the game. That led Dunstone to have words for the young Americans after nailing a game-winning shot.
That wasn’t the case on Friday, though. Dunstone’s team didn’t let Casper’s team generate anything except a deuce in the second end. The Manitoba-based rink just made shot after shot all night long that surely left the U.S. side thinking: “Whatever we do, it’s not going to matter.”
Now the reigning Brier champions head into the playoffs as the No. 1 seed with a 4-0 record, and the crazy part is they’re doing it without their new teammate Mark Nichols, who is out of this event with an upper-body injury. Colton Flasch was named as Nichols’ replacement prior to the event. Even though it is Flasch’s first Slam of the season, he has played phenomenally.
So, the reward for going undefeated in the round robin and beating your new rival for Dunstone? Getting to face Casper again in the quarterfinals.
Jacobs shows fight in Olympic final rematch against Mouat
It could’ve been really easy for Canada’s Team Brad Jacobs to mentally check out on Friday before their Olympic final rematch against Scotland’s Bruce Mouat, considering they had already been eliminated from the playoff race. But they understood the moment and showed up to at least fight.
The game was a product of how these two teams have looked all week. The Scottish men found their groove and made a lot of shots to put pressure on the opponent. While the Alberta-based team looked like a squad just going through one of those weeks where nothing works.
Even with all that, the fight never left the reigning Olympic champions. They found themselves losing 6-3 in the eighth end, but still had a real chance to score three with their final rock.
Jacobs made the hard part of the hit for three look easy. Unfortunately for the two-time Brier champion, the stone didn’t have enough juice when it hit Mouat’s rock, as they couldn't move it far enough to score three.
Just the perfect way to sum up their week, always on the wrong side of the inch.
The P&H Masters quarterfinals will be available on Sportsnet+ and Sportsnet ONE, starting at 12:30 p.m. EST / 10:30 a.m. PCT Saturday. CBC will air the semifinals on Saturday evening. Championship Sunday will be on Sportsnet.
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