Four of the 12 games played on the opening day at the Crown Royal Players’ Championship in Steinbach, Man. ended up needing a shootout, which is something we aren’t used to seeing at the Grand Slam of Curling, at least not this many.
Maybe it’s the fact this is the largest purse prize ($480,000) of any GSOC events this season and teams desperately don’t want to walk away from their game with zero points. Or, it could be the teams are just that even where only a draw to the button can separate them.
Either way, it’s great TV.
Thanks to Switzerland's Team Silvana Tirinzoni and Japan’s Team Momoha Tabata, we witnessed, for the first time in Slam history, a two-round shootout after both teams pinned their first attempts.
Although, that was just one of the exciting matches on Day 1.
Tuesday’s results (Full scores and standings)
Draw 1
Waddell 8, Retornaz 7 (SO)
Xu 8, Casper 3
Kitazawa 5, Yoshimura 4
Hasselborg 7, Fujisawa 3
Draw 2
Whyte 6, Jacobs 3
Y. Schwaller 10, Edin 5
Gim 12, Einarson 7
T. Peterson 7, X. Schwaller 6 (SO)
Draw 3
Dunstone 6, McEwen 5 (SO)
Mouat 5, Shuster 1
Tirinzoni 5, Tabata 4 (SO)
Homan 5, Wrana 4
Points galore
The first day of a GSOC event is usually the most unpredictable. Nobody is fully adjusted to the ice yet, which leads to key players missing important shots on both sides, opening up the possibility for big-score ends.
Day 1 at the Players’ Championship was no different. Teams were able to score at will thanks to important shots missing, however, this made for many quite entertaining matches.
Expect the score board to tighten up as the week rolls on and players get more comfortable on the ice.
Best match and shot
After watching the first end between Korea’s Team Eun-ji Gim and Canada’s Team Kerri Einarson finish with a blank because Gim couldn’t put anything of value together, nobody, and I mean nobody, would've predicted that over the next seven ends both teams would combine for 19 points.
They each swapped deuces in the second and third ends before Gim caught fire in the fourth.
Gim’s first shot was out-of-this-world as she made an angled double-runback, hitting Einarson’s stone in the four-foot only to roll into the button and hit her other sitting there as well.
Everyone was stunned, including Einarson, but that first shot set Gim up with her second after Einarson couldn’t really do anything.
Gim made a hit for three to take a 5-2 lead at the break.
In the sixth when Gim got the hammer back after Einarson earned two points, she did the same thing again. Torching Einarson for yet another three-spot, taking a 8-4 lead with two ends left.
Einarson, playing in her home province, didn’t want to go out like that in her opening match though. The Camp Morton, Man. native generated a three of her own to bring the game within one heading to the final end.
Even though it looked like Gim had no momentum, her team put together a great eighth end, leaving Einarson nowhere to hide with her last stone and the Koreans completed an epic 12-7 victory.
Best sweep
One inch can be the difference between a great shot and absolute disaster.
That was definitely the case for Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte in the first end against Canada’ Team Brad Jacobs.
After Jacobs threw his final stone it didn’t look possible for Whyte to get two, considering Jacobs was sitting shot rock with a shield of guards out front.
The easy draw for one was there for Whyte, but he wanted to put his sweepers to work early and go for more.
Euan Kyle, Whyte’s lead, had his hands full trying to keep the rock from crashing on Jacobs guard. With all of Kyle’s power he was able to just get the rock past the guard, and with enough weight, Whyte was able to move Jacobs stone far enough for an opening-end deuce.
The end proved to be huge as Whyte’s team got their confidence and dominated the rest of the way, winning 6-3.
Biggest momentum swing
This one could come back to haunt Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa later in the week.
Despite trailing 3-1 against Sweden’s Team Anna Hasselborg in the fifth end, Fujisawa had a wide open draw to the button to get her single point, which would’ve kept the game tight, just like the first four ends were played.
All Fujisawa needed was the full four-foot. Unfortunately for her, the weight was too heavy, and because of the new World Curling sweeping rules that came out just before the tournament, her sweepers weren’t allowed to attempt slowing the rock down.
The stone slid all the way into the back eight-foot, giving Hasselborg a steal of three, blowing the game open 6-1.
Fujisawa wasn’t able to recover after that and went on to lose 7-3.
Top team
Switzerland's Team Yannick Schwaller may still think they’re playing in the final of the HearingLife Canadian Open.
They were just as dominant in their first match against Sweden’s Team Niklas Edin as they were a couple weeks ago against Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte to earn their first GSOC title as a team.
Schwaller’s squad didn’t score often against Edin, but when they did, they sure made it count.
Already trailing 2-0 in the third end, Schwaller’s team considered using their blank because it didn’t look like they would be able to produce anything.
That was until Edin’s mate Oskar Eriksson missed.
The door was open for Schwaller and Benoit Schwarz van-Berkel (throws fourth stones for Schwaller) wasted no time plowing through it.
With van-Berkel’s final stone he made an impressive angled take out while also keeping the shooter to score four.
From there, Schwaller and his team were rolling. Each time they had hammer in the following ends they put up three points in each, routing Edin 10-5.
If van-Berkel continues to make incredible shots, they will not only be a serious contender to win back-to-back GSOC titles, but also the Olympics.
Crown Royal Players’ Championship coverage continues at 9:30 a.m. ET/ 6:30 a.m. PT with Draw 4 on Sportsnet+
Featured matches
Jacobs vs. Retornaz at 9:30 a.m. ET/ 6:30 a.m. PT
Mouat vs. Edin at 1 p.m. ET/ 10 a.m. PT
Homan vs. Fujisawa at 5 p.m. ET/ 2 p.m. PT
Mouat vs. Casper at 9 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. PT
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