STEINBACH, Man. — It's Day 3 of the Crown Royal Players' Championship at the Southeast Event Centre.
As we pass the midway mark of pool play, we should start to see some separation in the standings with the playoffs looming.
Stream live on watch.rockchannel.com. Broadcast coverage in Canada on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ begins with Draw 9 at 1 p.m. ET / Noon CT.
Keep it here all day for updates.
QUICK LINKS: DRAW SCHEDULE & RESULTS | STANDINGS | BROADCAST INFO
MUST-SEE MATCHES
Winnipeg's Team Matt Dunstone and Calgary's Team Brad Jacobs meet one more time in Draw 11.
The top two Canadian clubs have faced off six times this season. Dunstone won the first three, including two games in Grand Slam of Curling semifinals, while Jacobs has taken the last three, all in the Montana's Canadian Curling Trials. Jacobs was victorious in round-robin play and swept the best-of-three finals in two straight to earn the right to represent Canada at the upcoming Winter Olympics.
Jacobs goes up against his cousins, E.J. and Ryan Harnden, on Team Dunstone, although it'll hit differently now. E.J. Harnden announced last week that he will be stepping back from full-time competitive curling at the end of the season. That means this will be his final Grand Slam event with Team Dunstone, but the club is focused on winning.
"I feel very privileged and lucky to have played with him the last year and a half," Dunstone said at the start of the week. "One of the best seconds of all time and probably the best sweeper of all time, but not a whole lot of a debate. My out-turn is going to be in trouble moving forward here, but just want to have a lot of fun with him this week.
"We kind of talked earlier, treating this as another event. Yes, it's his last one. Everybody knows that, but not making that the focus point. He doesn't want to make that the focus point. He wants to go out and compete with us, win, have as much fun as he and all of us can, and we're not treating it, and he doesn't want us to treat it like a grand finale, right? He just wants to go out and compete, and that's what he is. He's a competitor, he's a sportsman, he's shown that his whole career, and would love to get this one for him."
For Jacobs, it's a busy two-game day, with Scotland's Team Kyle Waddell on tap first in Draw 8. Jacobs entered the day winless at 0-0-0-2 and needs to put points on the board quickly to ensure his team sticks around through the weekend.
THURSDAY'S SCHEDULE/RESULTS
Draw 8: 9:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. CT
• Gim 7, Kitazawa 5: Watch Replay | Linescore
• Fujisawa 6, X. Schwaller 4: Watch Replay | Linescore
• Xu 8, Y. Schwaller 7 (shootout): Watch Replay | Linescore
• Waddell 7, Jacobs 4: Watch Replay | Linescore
Draw 9: 1 p.m. ET / Noon CT
• Peterson 7, Hasselborg 5: Watch Replay | Linescore
• Yoshimura 10, Einarson 2: Watch Replay | Linescore
• Retornaz 7, Whyte 6 (shootout): Watch Replay | Linescore
• Casper 6, Edin 3: Watch Replay | Linescore
Draw 10: 5 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. CT
• Wranå 7, Fujisawa 5: Watch Replay | Linescore
• Kitazawa 7, Tabata 6: Watch Replay | Linescore
• Waddell 9, McEwen 2: Watch Replay | Linescore
• Xu 6, Mouat 5: Watch Replay | Linescore
Draw 11: 9 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. CT
• X. Schwaller 6, Homan 3: Watch Replay | Linescore
• Tirinzoni 8, Gim 4: Watch Replay | Linescore
• Dunstone 7, Jacobs 6 (shootout): Watch Replay | Linescore
• Y. Schwaller 8, Shuster 4: Watch Replay | Linescore
ABOUT THE EVENT
The Crown Royal Players' Championship is the fifth and final Grand Slam of Curling event of the season, featuring 12 of the top men's teams and 12 of the top women's teams from around the world.
Both divisions are split into two pools of six for round-robin play. The top six teams overall advance to the playoffs, with the best two receiving byes to the semifinals. If necessary, one tiebreaker round will be played on Saturday.
If a game is tied after eight ends during the round-robin stage, a draw-to-the-button shootout will determine the winner. Teams receive three points for a regulation win, two points for a shootout win and one point for a shootout loss.
Extra ends will be played instead of shootouts during the tiebreakers and playoffs. The quarterfinals and semifinals are scheduled for Saturday, with both finals on tap Sunday.
