SASKATOON — The last dance will have an encore: Brad Gushue will play at least one extra day in the Grand Slam of Curling.
Gushue will step back from competitive curling at the end of the season and is competing in his final Grand Slam event this week at the HearingLife Canadian Open.
The 15-time Grand Slam champ from St. John's, N.L., wrapped up preliminary play Friday with a 2-1-0-1 record and eight points to qualify for the playoffs after defeating Matt Dunstone 5-4 in a shootout.
Despite nearing the end of his career, Gushue's still got it, pinning the draw to the button.
Although Dunstone landed on the lid, his shooter came up short of matching Gushue on the pinhole.
"I've had great draw weight, really all year," Gushue said. "We just had a brief conversation before I threw the rock on what the speed was, because if the speed was different, Geoff (Walker) obviously had thrown a bunch of draws, so we might have given Geoff the chance to throw if it had changed. But he said the speed had been the same all game.
"I knew exactly what I needed to throw, and when I let go, I loved it. The line was good and it was just a matter of Geoff and Mark (Nichols) putting it in the right spot, and they did.
"A good team shot, it's always nice to do that, but you just expect Matt to make it on top and then you're going to have to do it again. Fortunately for us, he just didn't get the line. A good extra point, which puts us in a little bit better position now for the playoffs."
Just getting to Saskatoon for the HearingLife Canadian Open was an adventure in and of itself. Gushue and Nichols were in jeopardy of missing the start of the event after their initial flight out of St. John's on Sunday was cancelled.
Not on our watch, the curling gods must have said, even if it meant more detours than Kate McCallister's itinerary to get back to Chicago in Home Alone.
"We booked one for Monday and then Monday evening, Tuesday morning, Tuesday evening, but we were told we weren't going to get here until Wednesday evening. Fortunately, we were able to squeeze on a couple of different flights and kind of thread the needle to get here really early on Tuesday morning," Gushue said. "We missed practice but got here for the first game, which didn't look like it was going to happen once the flight started getting cancelled.
"Grateful to be here, and we’ve played well. We had a tough draw, obviously, having Dunstone, (Brad) Jacobs and (John) Shuster and (Joël) Retornaz. To get through the playoffs, it's good. Hopefully, we have a good weekend."
Gushue will meet Shuster again in Saturday's quarterfinals.
After forcing Gushue to draw for a single to start, Dunstone delivered a double bump for two points in the second to take a 2-1 lead.
Gushue drew again for one point in the third to tie it, then stole two in the fourth to make it 4-2 as Dunstone attempted an in-off that missed the mark.
Dunstone was limited to a single in the sixth and swiped the tying point in the eighth end to force the shootout, as Gushue was more concerned with not losing the game — and potentially having to play the waiting game to find out his fate in the event, and the series.
Since Gushue was ranked too low to receive an invitation to next month's Crown Royal Players' Championship in Steinbach, Man., his next scheduled event isn't until the Montana's Brier in his backyard in February.
"It was big to get in the playoffs," Gushue said. "We felt like one point was going to get us in there, so we wanted to secure that. We played a little bit of a funny last end to secure it because we didn't want to take more risk and give up a steal of two, but to finish it off with a draw, that was good."
Dunstone had reached the past three Grand Slam finals but missed the playoffs at 0-0-1-3 with one point from the shootout loss. His Winnipeg-based team was coming off a heartbreaking loss in the Montana's Canadian Curling Trials final to Team Jacobs.
EINARSON BLANKS HOMAN
No hammer? No problem for Kerri Einarson.
Her Gimli, Man., team hasn't started with the hammer all week, but Friday's game against Rachel Homan and her Ottawa-based club was something else.
It was a blank — figuratively, not literally — as Einarson shut out Homan 8-0 to enter the playoffs undefeated at 4-0-0-0. Einarson stole a total of 15 ends and 23 points during the preliminary round.
"It feels awesome," said Shannon Birchard, who throws second stones for Einarson. "They've been a bit of a monkey on our back this season. I thought we came out firing and had control of the game right from the get-go, so that was huge for us, even though we didn't get the hammer. Although, we haven't started with the hammer in any game this week.
"It's been great so far, and we just hope to carry this forward tomorrow."
The top two women's teams in Canada, and the only two Canadian women's teams competing in the event, met on the pebbled ice a little over three weeks ago at the Montana's Canadian Curling Trials in Halifax. Homan edged Einarson 7-6 during the final round-robin draw to earn a bye to the final. Einarson was then eliminated in the semifinal with a 6-3 defeat against Halifax's own Christina Black. Homan swept the best-of-three final against Black and will represent Canada at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
"We had a pretty good chat following the trials and just to reset and refocus ourselves for the Scotties," Birchard said. "We know that we've got this event to finish out, Steinbach, which is going be amazing being back in Manitoba and having lots of friends and family there, and then the Scotties, which we love to play in. That was a big focus of ours.
"We can grieve the trials and the work that we put into that event for four years, but there's lots to play for, and we just have to keep that mindset."
Homan was looking to blank the first end against Einarson, but in what was a harbinger of things to come, her shooter just glanced off the shot rock, which stuck around for a stolen point.
The 20-time Grand Slam champ Homan couldn't quite complete a runback double takeout in the second end, as Einarson's second rock remained in the rings to count for another steal.
Homan's struggles continued as she wasn't able to tap Einarson's partially hidden shot rock far enough in the third end, and another missed runback in the fourth put two more points on the board to make it 5-0 heading into the break.
Handshakes came after the fifth, as Homan surrendered three more points.
It was just the second time Homan (3-0-0-1) had lost a game in the Grand Slam of Curling this season, with three straight championship wins, and only the second time she has been shutout in a standard match in series history.
The first came during pool play at the Champions Cup on May 3, 2023, in Regina, with a 10-0 loss to Jennifer Jones.
For what it's worth, Homan went on to capture the title in that event, defeating Einarson 6-5 in the final on a steal in an extra end.
PLAYOFF PICTURE
Note: Teams received three points for a regulation win, two points for a shootout win, one point for a shootout loss and zero points for a regulation loss.
Men's Division
1. Team Mouat (4-0-0-0, 12 points): Bruce Mouat and the boys continue to roll, taking the top seed with a 7-4 victory over Team Waddell. Mouat is the double defending champion in the event and has also captured the past two Grand Slam of Curling men's titles.
2. Team Y. Schwaller (4-0-0-0, 12 points): Yannick Schwaller's squad stayed unbeaten with an 8-1 rout over Team Edin.
3. Team Shuster (3-0-0-1, nine points): John Shuster qualified with a 7-2 win over Team Retornaz.
4. Team Jacobs (2-1-1-0, nine points): Secured a spot with a 9-2 victory over Team Muskatewitz.
5. Team Whyte (3-0-0-1, nine points): Ross Whyte made it through with a 5-3 win over Hösli.
6. Team Gushue (2-1-0-1, eight points)
7. Team Muskatewitz (2-0-1-1, seven points)
8. Tiebreaker winner: Team Retornaz and Team Waddell will face off Saturday morning for the final playoff berth. Both teams finished the preliminary round at 2-0-0-2 (six points).
Women's Division
1. Team Ha (4-0-0-0, 12 points): Ha was the first past the post with a 6-4 win Thursday morning over Team Kitazawa. A 7-4 victory over Team Schwaller on Friday evening gave the South Korean club the top seed.
2. Team Einarson (4-0-0-0, 12 points): Einarson earned a playoff berth following a 6-3 win Thursday over Team Constantini. The 8-0 shutout over Homan gave Einarson the No. 2 seed as Ha held a better last-stone draw total.
3. Team Tirinzoni (3-0-0-1, nine points): Silvana Tirinzoni scored a 6-4 win over Team Morrison to qualify Friday.
4. Team Homan (3-0-0-1, nine points): Rachel Homan downed Team Kim 6-3 Thursday to qualify. The Canadian club entered the event as the double defending champions and winners of the past three Grand Slam women's titles.
5. Team Fujisawa (3-0-0-1, nine points): Satsuki Fujisawa scored four in the fourth end during an 8-5 win Friday morning over Team Kang to qualify.
6. Team Wang (2-0-0-2, six points): With five teams tied for three spots, Wang advanced outright based on last-stone draw totals.
7. Tiebreaker winner 1
8. Tiebreaker winner 2
Who's playing in the women's tiebreakers?
Team Yoshimura vs. Team Hasselborg and Team Tabata vs. Team Kang. All four teams finished with 2-0-0-2 records and six points.
FRIDAY'S SCHEDULE/RESULTS
Draw 13
• Shuster 7, Retornaz 2
• Casper 8, Kleiter 7 (shootout)
• Wang 6, Kitazawa 5
• Fujisawa 8, Kang 5
Draw 14
• Gushue 5, Dunstone 4 (shootout)
• Whyte 5, Hösli 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 (shootout)
• Mouat 7, Waddell 4
• Ha 7, X. Schwaller 4
• Tabata 5, Yoshimura 4
SATURDAY'S SCHEDULE
Tiebreakers: 9:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. CT
Watch live on watch.rockchannel.com.
• Retornaz vs. Waddell
• Yoshimura vs. Hasselborg
• Tabata vs. Kang
Women's Quarterfinals: 1 p.m. ET / Noon CT
Watch live on watch.rockchannel.com and Sportsnet.
• Ha vs. Tiebreaker winner
• Homan vs. Fujisawa
• Einarson vs. Tiebreaker winner
• Tirinzoni vs. Wang
Men's Quarterfinals: 5 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. CT
Watch live on watch.rockchannel.com and Sportsnet.
• Mouat vs. Tiebreaker winner
• Jacobs vs. Whyte
• Y. Schwaller vs. Muskatewitz
• Shuster vs. Gushue
Men's and Women's Semifinals: 9 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. CT
Watch live on watch.rockchannel.com and Sportsnet.
• TBD
