If Canada’s Team Rachel Homan and Matt Dunstone continue playing the way they have this week, it could be a long season for other top curlers.
With both already having won the AMJ Masters last month, each team is headed to its second straight Grand Slam of Curling final to start the year.
Dunstone won’t have it easy, though, as his team will face Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat, who beat Italy’s Team Joel Retornaz 4-2 in the CO-OP Tour Challenge semifinals Saturday.
The world No. 1 and defending Tour Challenge champion will be looking for his first GSOC title of the year after winning four Slam events last season.
Homan will take on Switzerland’s Team Silvana Tirinzoni after she downed countrywoman Xenia Schwaller 7-3 in her semifinal match.
It will be the third straight GSOC final for the two dating back to last season.
Saturday’s results (Full scores and standings)
Draw 17 - Men’s and women’s tiebreakers
Gushue 7, McEwen 4
Gim 6, Fujisawa 5
Waddell 8, Muskatewitz 7 (SO)
Wrana 4, Tabata 3
Draw 18 - Women’s quarterfinals
X. Schwaller 6, Constantini 5 (SO)
Tirinzoni 9, Wrana 4
Hasselborg 6, Gim 4
Homan 9, Einarson 3
Draw 19 - Men’s quarterfinals
Dunstone 7, Edin 2
Mouat 9, Gushue 2
Retornaz 5, Y. Schwaller 2
Epping 6, Waddell 5
Draw 20 - Men’s and Women’s semifinals
Mouat 4, Retornaz 2
Homan 5, Hasselborg 4 (SO)
Dunstone 6, Epping 5
Tirinzoni 7, X. Schwaller 3
Best match
Homan will make you fall in love with watching curling.
She played an instant classic semifinal match vs. Sweden’s Team Anna Hasselborg, where after seven ends it looked all but over for Homan.
After Homan was forced to take one in the seventh – something she didn’t want to do – and took the lead, Hasselborg was in the driver's set to get the win, just needing a deuce in eight.
And as Hasselborg slid down the ice to the hack for her final shot, her chance for two points was there. The call was a soft-weight double takeout, hoping to keep the shooter still. She had no problem making the double, but she didn’t play it soft enough, and lost the shooter, only scoring one.
This meant for the first for the first time in GSOC history, a finalist would be determined by a shootout.
Homan had the hammer and the option of going first or second. Knowing she wanted to apply the pressure, she went first.
Even though the second she let go of the rock she thought it was bad, her trusty front end guided the stone directly on the pin.
Homan had successfully applied the pressure on Hasselborg.
Hasselborg didn’t flinch, though, delivering a beautiful draw that just needed an extra five centimeters of weight or an extra couple brush strokes from the sweepers to pin it as well.
In a game that looked to be a loss for Homan, she and her team showed they are the best in the world.
Top play and best shot
With the way Matt Dunstone is playing right now, there isn't another curler on the planet you’d rather have throwing last stones. The man just doesn’t miss.
Up 3-1 In his quarterfinal match against Sweden’s Team Niklas Edin, he elected to try a double-runback double takeout to try to score two. Oh, by the way, he wasn’t even using his own rocks to make the double takeout.
Instead, he used Edin’s stone to run into the house and make the double runback, knowing that Edin’s rock he was hitting couldn’t out-count his own two in the house.
Dunstone made it look easy, grabbing his two en route to a 7-2 victory.
But he wasn’t done there. Against the hottest team of the week, John Epping, Dunstone needed to make shots every end to keep his team in the game.
The contest was capped by his heroics in the eighth end, nailing a tapback for two points and the win.
Biggest momentum swing
Joel Retornaz and Switzerland’s Team Yannick Schwaller didn’t want to give an inch against each other, until someone had to.
Tied 2-2 after six, both teams had already used their one blank end (a new GSOC rule starting at this event). So even though Retornaz had hammer going to the seventh, Schwaller knew he couldn’t blank the end and carry it into the final frame.
Knowing the situation, Retornaz seemed to treat it like he was down by two needing a big score.
After making a wonderful shot with his first stone to sit three, Schwaller chose to eliminate just one while trying to get buried so Retornaz, at max, could only get two.
While the Schwaller shot did remove one of Retornaz’s rocks, he didn’t get completely buried, and left Retornaz with a risky soft-weight takeout shot.
Without hesitation, Retornaz called the shot to potentially score three, and he came through. With a good sweep from his front end, he was able to just get by the guard and move Schwaller’s stone out of the house.
Retornaz called and delivered the massive swing of momentum with the three-ender as his squad would run Schwaller out of rocks in the eighth end.
Best sweep
What’s the point of having sweepers if you’re not going to use them?
Well, Scotland’s Team Kyle Waddell certainly understands the point of having them.
Trailing 3-2 in the fifth end versus Epping, Waddell looked well on his way to earning his deuce. With one rock on the outer edge of the 12 foot, Waddell had a chance to split the house as all he needed to do was make a takeout. Not a wide open takeout, but a takeout that should be no problem for a professional.
However, Waddell threw the rock inside and needed every brush stroke from Blair Haswell to keep the line straight if the shot was going to have a chance.
Haswell, with all his might, created a ton of pressure on the broom while sweeping the length of the ice. Haswell kept the rock straight just long enough that it could squeak by the guard as Waddell made the hit and would eventually get his two points as well.
Event coverage continues at noon ET/ 10 a.m. PT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ on Sunday
Featured matches
Women’s final: Homan vs. Tirinzoni at noon ET/ 9 a.m. PT
Men’s final: Dunstone vs. Mouat at 4:30 p.m. ET/ 1:30 p.m. PT
