A pair of hometown women put on a show on the opening day of the Grand Slam of Curling season in Victoria.
Taylor Reese-Hansen and Kayla MacMillan, both out of Victoria, skipped their teams to upset victories on Tuesday at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.
Reese-Hansen, 28, defeated Olympic silver medallist Alina Paetz of Switzerland 8-4 in the second draw at the Co-op Invitational. The Canadians controlled play throughout the match and were left with open draws for two and three to pull away for their first-ever GSOC victory.
However, the bigger upset happened when MacMillan beat 20-time Grand Slam champion Rachel Homan 6-5 in a shootout to cap the night draw. It was MacMillan’s first-ever win as a fourth-stone thrower on the GSOC tour.
The 28-year-old MacMillan and her rink were the better squad through the first four ends thanks in large part to the play of Val Sweeting, who is new on the team. When the season started Sweeting was throwing third stones and holding the broom for MacMillan's skip stones. But just recently, the team decided that Sweeting should be the one calling the game as well.
Sweeting's poise and understanding of the moment seemed to help MacMillan settle in. Don’t get it twisted, though; MacMillan made a ton of great shots that applied pressure to Homan, resulting in a 4-2 advantage at the fourth end break.
After the fifth end, when MacMillan missed an opportunity to score at least two, and only got one instead to take a 5-2 lead, the game felt like it changed. Not only did that sequence keep Homan’s hopes alive, but the nerves for MacMillan of playing in her hometown and against Homan started to get to her.
This led to a pretty standard double being missed on MacMillan’s final rock in the eighth end that gave Homan a steal of one to tie the game.
MacMillan had no time to think about the miss, though — which was probably a great thing in retrospect — as she had to throw a draw to the button in the shootout. After Homan nearly pinned it, MacMillan showed guts and out-drew her for the win.
Tuesday’s results (Full scores and standings)
Draw 1
Hasselborg 7, Zardini Lacedelli 3
Fujisawa 8, Dupont 5
Casper 10, Yamaguchi 6
Bottcher 6, Eriksson 4
Draw 2
Reese-Hansen 8, Paetz 4
Einarson 7, Nihira 3
Hoesli 6, Mouat 4
Y. Schwaller 7, Epping 6
Draw 3
Kang 5, X. Schwaller 3
Hardie 9, Koe 4
Maeda 6, Dunstone 3
Gim 5, Miura 3
Draw 4
Ueno 6, Wrana 1
MacMillan 6, Homan 5 (SO)
Ramsfjell 8, Waddell 6
Jacobs 6, Carson 3
Brydone fits Mouat’s team like a glove
If there were any worries as to how Robin Brydone would fit into Bruce Mouat’s Scottish rink, there shouldn’t be moving forward.
Yes, Tuesday's game against Switzerland’s Team Marco Hoesli was only their fifth game together this year, but Brydone's style of play from his previous squad, Team Whyte (now Team Hardie), is how Team Mouat loves to play, too.
Both teams are aggressive. They don’t like to sit back and let the game come to them, and instead prefer attacking the other teams to put pressure on them. Of course, both are known for hitting, and whether it’s soft weight hits or missiles down the ice, they’re accurate and rarely miss. But it’s also the fact they can execute a perfect come-around draw in the top of the house.
Against Hoesli, we saw that on full display for Brydone. During the third end he made a perfect double and rolled behind a guard, which was the driving factor in forcing Hoesli to take one in that end. Then in the fifth end, it was a soft-weight hit-and-roll to lay buried.
Throughout the match he was the most consistent player, setting up Mouat for opportunities that the team just couldn’t finish on. So, even though Team Mouat did lose 6-4 to Team Hoesli during their opening match, seeing Brydone fit in that well, and make those kinds of shots, is the only thing that matters for Mouat.
The wins are going to come.
Bottcher’s lineup impressed on Day 1
One of the more impressive new-look teams making their Grand Slam debut was Brendan Bottcher and his rink out of Alberta.
After two seasons of playing with Brad Gushue before he retired, Bottcher has returned to skipping, bringing his Gushue teammate, Geoff Walker, along to play lead. Bottcher grabbed Tanner and Jake Horgan from John Epping’s team to play second and third, rounding out the team.
Picking up the 6-4 win over Sweden’s Team Oskar Eriksson during the opening draw of the tournament had to feel good for Bottcher, but what probably felt better was the process in which they did it.
They definitely looked like a team already playing in their fifth event of the season , with established chemistry. For the first seven ends, outside of one mistake in the fifth end that led to a Team Eriksson steal, Team Bottcher controlled play and didn’t allow Eriksson to score more than a single point in any given end.
However, in the eighth end, when Eriksson’s squad made it look dicey for Bottcher, he made a clutch draw to the four-foot against two for the win.
It’s a long season ahead. Heck, it’s a long week ahead for this new Alberta rink, but this is a great sign of what this team can be.
The Co-op Invitational will continue on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ Wednesday starting with Draw 6 at 3 p.m. ET/ 12 p.m. PT. Sportsnet will air three draws per day through Friday. Sportsnet+ and CBC will carry the Saturday quarterfinals, while CBC will air the semifinals on Saturday evening. Championship Sunday will be on Sportsnet.
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