There will be at least one more match in Brad Gushue’s Grand Slam of Curling career.
The 14-time GSOC champion will be playing for a title at the HearingLife Canadian Open in Saskatoon, Sask.
On Friday, Gushue narrowly edged out fellow Canadian Matt Dunstone with a 5-4 shootout win, improving his record to 3-1 on the week.
On the Women’s side Korea’s Team Seung-youn Ha defeated Switzerland's Team Xenia Schwaller 7-4 and earned the No. 1 seed heading into the playoffs.
Friday’s results (Full scores and standings)
Draw 13
Shuster 7, Retornaz 2
Casper 8, Kleiter 7 (SO)
Wang 6, Kitazawa 5
Fujisawa 8, Kang 5
Draw 14
Gushue 5, Dunstone 4 (SO)
Whyte 5, Hoesli 3
Constantini 8, Kim 7
Tirinzoni 6, Morrison 4
Draw 15
Jacobs 9, Muskatewitz 2
Y. Schwaller 8, Edin 1
Einarson 8, Homan 0
Hasselborg 6, Gim 3
Draw 16
Epping 7, McEwen 6 (SO)
Mouat 7, Waddell 4
Ha 7, X. Schwaller 4
Tabata 5, Yoshimura 4
Tiebreakers needed
There will be multiple tiebreakers needed to determine the playoff field.
For the women’s side Japan’s Team Sayaka Yoshimura will face Sweden’s Team Anna Hasselborg and Japan’s Team Miku Tabata will take on Korea’s team Bo-bae Kang.
While on the men’s side Italy’s Team Joel Retornaz will face off against Scotland’s Team Kyle Waddell.
Homan vs. Einarson
Playing Homan can be a scary sight for any curler, but especially for her fellow Canadians.
Coming into her match against Canadian Kerri Einarson, Homan had built up a record of 88-3 vs. Canadian opponents dating back to the start of the 2023-24 season. The good news for Einarson? She was responsible for two of those three losses.
Homan grabbed the hammer with a perfect draw to the button from Tracy Fleury, and just like her match on Thursday against Eun-jun Kim, she played the first end clean to have an open hit for a blank with her last rock. Homan did this by design in both games so she could set herself up to score in even ends and control the game.
It was an open hit so routine for Homan that many probably got up to grab a snack assuming the score would be 0-0 in the second end when they returned.
Well, if that was the case, fans would have returned to see a shocking result on the scoreboard. Homan slid wide, and with the ice running straight along with Homan’s up weight, the rock couldn’t curl enough in time. She missed and gave Einarson a steal to start the game.
In the second end Einarson’s team got better, and Homan’s got worse. By the time it came for Homan to throw her stones there wasn’t really much she could do. What looked like a steal of two ended up being just a single steal once again for Einarson after Homan made a nice attempt on a hard double-takeout.
Down 2-0 in the third end, things finally started to look up for the Olympic-bound skip. Even though she slid inside while attempting to pick out Einarson’s rock that was sitting shot rock in the four-foot, her trusty teammate Emma Miskew came through again.
Miskew used all her strength for the length of the ice to keep the rock straight as long as possible, and was able to get the job done, leaving Homan sitting three.
After Einarson threw another draw in the four-foot, this time the other side, Homan tried to pick it out once again to score three. The same side that tricked her in the first end, tricked her again as she was outside, and with no curl, just bumped Einarson’s rock, but not far enough to get the point.
The fourth end was more of the same as Homan gave up yet another steal, this time for two, and trailed 5-0 at the break.
In the fifth end Einarson’s whole team again played outstanding, nailing all of their guards after getting a couple rocks in the house. This left Homan with just a long angle tapback into Einarson’s rock and then onto her own to try and get a single point.
Homan, of course, made the shot exactly how she wanted to for line, but had too much weight and her rock went into the back of the house, giving Einarson another steal of three.
Down 8-0 Homan decided to call it quits.
In Homan’s 53 games prior this season, her team gave up 14 steals total. In five ends against Einarson on Friday, she gave up five.
Einarson has now handed Homan three of her four losses to Canadians in the past three seasons.
Best shot
After USA’s Team Danny Casper potentially made the shot of the week he had one word to say.
"Nice."
Canada’s Team Rylan Kleiter was up 5-4 in the sixth against Capser and sitting shot stone. Casper could’ve easily drawn to the button for a single point but knew he couldn’t settle for one.
So, Casper got creative and wanted to try an angle runback double-takeout for three. The shot was there, but it would have to be perfect since the first rock he would hit sat behind a guard half-buried.
Everything Casper wanted to happen came to fruition, and he scored a massive three points.
Even though it was a tough week for Capser and his team, the joy of that impressive shot overwhelmed them, making it worth it even more as they would go on to win 8-7 in a shootout.
Momentum swing
At just 20 years old, Kang is one of the bright up-and-coming teams at the Grand Slam of Curling, but against Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa, they learned a valuable lesson.
Tied 3-3 in the fourth end, Kang was trying a double runback on her own rocks to eliminate at least one of Fujisawa’s two shot rocks with her final stone.
Kang threw a bullet down the ice, and her sweepers immediately jumped on the rock to sweep, but were quickly called off by Min-seo Kim who was in the house calling line and reduced to "clean" all the way down the ice.
When Kang’s rock hit though, disaster struck.
The rock Kang was attempting the runback with only tapped Fujisawa’s stone and rolled directly out the side and out of bounds, while her shooter rolled off the side and out.
This opened the door for Fujisawa with an easy draw for four, which she made to take a 7-3 lead. Fujisawa would go on to win the match 8-5.
Whether it was lack of communication or a bad throw, that moment changed the game for the young Korean team, making it something they will have to learn from.
The HearingLife Canadian Open continues tomorrow on Sportsnet+ starting at 9:30 a.m. ET/ 6:30 a.m. PT with tiebreakers. Coverage begins on Sportsnet starting at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT with quarterfinal action.
Featured matches
Tiebreakers at 9:30 a.m. ET/ 6:30 a.m. PT
Men’s quarterfinals at 1 p.m. ET/ 10 a.m. PT
Women’s quarterfinals at 5 p.m. ET/ 2 p.m. PT
Men’s and Women’s semifinals at 9 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. PT
3:00
1:50