In a week where Team Matt Dunstone had to call in a sub, the Canadian rink is off to the P&H Masters men's final in Medicine Hat, Alta.
Dunstone's Manitoba-based team defeated Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller, the No. 1 team in the world, in a 5-3 thriller on Saturday to reach Sunday's final. Dunstone will face Team Bruce Mouat after the Scottish squad beat the other Swiss semifinalist, Marco Hoesli, 7-3.
Colton Flasch got the call from Dunstone before the event to replace second Mark Nichols, who is dealing with an upper-body injury, and has been a perfect fit. Substitutes often are nervous to get in on strategy calls, but not Flasch. He was part of every major discussion during the semifinal, and voiced his opinion, which proved to be helpful for Dunstone.
However, there was one key moment in the semifinal where Dunstone went against his teammates, and it ended up being a decision they’re probably thankful for.
The reigning Brier champion didn’t let who he was playing affect his mind in the fifth end. He could’ve played a nasty looking double takeout for potentially two if he made it, but elected to play just the open draw for one to tie the game. If Dunstone would’ve taken on the shot and missed, he could’ve given up a steal of two.
The decision to take one meant Dunstone believed in the process of the game. He wanted to give his team a chance in a tie game with three ends remaining instead of just letting Schwaller bully him into a shot he didn’t have to attempt.
The bet paid off as Dunstone recorded the first multi-point end in the seventh to take a 4-3 lead before a mistake by Benoit Schwarz-Van Berkel in the eighth helped seal the deal.
Now, with Flasch subbing, Dunstone will have a chance to repeat as Masters champion.
Saturday's results (Full scores and standings)
Draw 17 - tiebreaker
Nihira 8, Reese-Hansen 5
Draw 18 - men’s quarterfinals
Mouat 6, Bottcher 5
Dunstone 7, Casper 5
Y. Schwaller 7, Hardie 3
Hoesli 7, Epping 4
Draw 19 - women’s quarterfinals
Kitazawa 6, Paetz 2
Sturmay 7, Homan 5
Nihira 7, Gim 5
Wrana 7, X. Schwaller 4
Draw 20 - semifinals
Wrana 7, Kitazawa 6
Nihira 6, Sturmay 4
Dunstone 5, Y. Schwaller 3
Mouat 7, Hoesli 3
Mouat cruises to final
There might not be a scarier team to face right now then Team Mouat.
Mouat cruised to a semifinal win against Hoesli to reach the final. It looked like we would get a close match after Hoesli managed to steal one in the third, but Mouat responded with three in the next end to blow the game wide open. Taking out the steal, each time Mouat had hammer, he ended up scoring multiple points.
The nail-biting game we thought would happen in the semis for the Scottish team actually came in the quarterfinals against Canada’s Team Brendan Bottcher. Down 5-4 in the eighth end, it looked like Bottcher’s Alberta team had the game in the bag with a rock in the house and a mess of guards out front. Out came the Mouat magic.
First with Robin Brydone, Mouat’s third, making a crazy angled runback to stick the shooter in the house. Then Mouat had to make difficult shots with each of his stones to win the game.
Wrana’s mental strength leads to championship berth
Talk about being mentally strong.
Sweden’s Team Isabella Wrana won the European Curling Championships last Sunday in Ostrava, Czechia, then hopped on a plane to fly halfway across the world to make it to the Masters and has been on the go ever since.
That’s mentally strong in and of itself, but what was even more impressive from the Swedish team, was its resilience during a semifinal matchup against Japan’s Team Ikue Kitazawa. Everything was looking great for the Swedes after they scored a massive four in the sixth end to take a 6-3 lead, but they immediately let that slip away by giving three points right back in the seventh end.
The eighth could’ve gone one of two ways. Wrana’s team could’ve let what just happened affect its mental strength and crumble to defeat, or the squad could leave it in the past and play a great end.
They decided on the latter, and punched their ticket to the final – where they will face Japan’s Team Miku Nihira – by giving Wrana an open draw for the win.
Homan loses twice to Sturmay in a week
To beat Canada’s Team Rachel Homan during an event is a major accomplishment, but to do it twice, well, that’s rare air. That's exactly what Canada's Team Selena Sturmay did this week.
After Sturmay beat Homan’s team on the opening day in a shootout, it once again came down to the final couple shots in their quarterfinal to determine a winner.
While it was an amazing accomplishment for the Alberta-based team to reach the semifinal, where the squad lost to Nihira, the bigger story was, of course, Homan. It wasn’t the best performance for the reigning Olympic bronze medallists, who haven't found top form in the season's first two Grand Slams.
Tracy Fleury, the team’s third, struggled to find her game for a second day in a row, leading to some difficult shots for Homan. Homan’s team was handed a lifeline during the game after Sturmay started to struggle under pressure, giving up back-to-back steals in the sixth and seventh ends to tie the game. But Sturmay’s team rebounded nicely in the eighth to pull out the win.
Overall, this week was a step in the right direction for Homan, but the team will need more as the season goes along.
Hardie plays into Schwaller's hand
It felt wrong seeing the world No. 1 Team Schwaller face the No. 2-ranked team Team Grant Hardie of Scotland during the men's quarterfinals – with the amount of talent on the ice, this should at least be a semifinal.
However, the Scots might’ve forgotten how talented they really are, leading to their 7-3 defeat.
It was clear from the beginning of the match that the Scottish men felt like they needed to take big swings in order to win the game, considering how well Schwaller’s team has played since the beginning of the season. For a lot of teams, that makes sense. But Hardie’s team, at its best, is just as good as Schwaller, so the strategy actually hurt them.
The first major swing and miss came in the third end when Ross Whyte, the fourth-stone thrower for the team, and Hardie wanted to play a really thin double to potentially score four instead of just playing the open draw for one. While it was there, it was insanely precise and Whyte couldn’t get it to go, leading to a steal.
The same thing happened in the sixth end. Instead of just drawing for a single, Hardie’s team settled on a long runback attempt to potentially score two. Once again Whyte came close, but couldn’t get the difficult shot to go.
It led to a seventh end that was a disaster for Hardie with another steal of two for Schwaller, followed by handshakes. The next time these two teams play, it will be interesting to see if Hardie makes decisions based on who they’re playing or if he believes in the talent they have.
The P&H Masters men’s final will be on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ starting at noon ET / 11 a.m. ABT on Sunday. The women’s also will be on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ starting at 4 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. ABT.
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