NISKU, Alta. — It'll be a special week at the CO-OP Tour Challenge for proud Girl Dad and Curl Dad Brad Gushue.
Not only is he playing in the Grand Slam of Curling event with his men's team, but his youngest daughter, Marissa, is also competing in the U15 tournament down the road in Beaumont.
The CO-OP Tour Challenge has expanded this season to include the inaugural Jr. GSOC U25 and U15 tournaments. Although the junior events will begin Thursday at the Beaumont Curling Club, Sunday’s finals will take place alongside the CO-OP Tour Challenge men’s and women’s championship games on the arena ice at the Silent Ice Center.
Gushue thinks the Jr. GSOC is a good opportunity to give younger curlers another event to play in and will be fun for them to line up next to the world’s best on the big stage.
“I’m excited to keep one eye on her event and another eye on mine,” Gushue said with a smile. “I think it would be absolutely amazing if we were both playing on Sunday. At the end of the day, I’d probably prefer her playing on Sunday than me because I love watching her and cheering her on, but I’m excited to have her come up.”
Marissa will be playing lead on a special mixed team, featuring twins Tucker and Carter Hellman plus Luke Shuster, son of 2018 Olympic gold medallist John Shuster.
“When John and his wife reached out, I was on the road, so I kind of connected them to my wife, and they were able to make it work,” Gushue explained. “I think it’s going to be fun for all of them. Hopefully, they’ll play well. I’d love to see them out here on Sunday.”
When the 15-time Grand Slam champion from St. John's, N.L., isn't on the ice playing, he's hoping to be at the Beaumont Curling Club.
“I should have an opportunity, depending on how Saturday goes. I think our game on Friday is going to conflict with their game, so I’m not sure I’ll get to see too much of that,” he said. “Then hopefully, we’re in the playoffs on Saturday, so I may not get to see too much of that game either. If there’s an opportunity, I’m going to take it and go out and watch as much as I can.”
The old saying that it’s harder to watch than it is to play doesn’t apply to Gushue.
“It’s hard to watch, I wouldn’t say it’s harder. I enjoy watching her play, and I don’t get too stressed out. I want to see her enjoy herself and learn, and she’s doing that,” he said.
“Both my daughters are loving the game. They’re learning and soaking it all in and enjoying the experience, so I’m having fun watching them both.”
CO-OP TOUR CHALLENGE QUICK LINKS: DRAW SCHEDULE | STANDINGS | JR. GSOC SCHEDULE
MOUAT MAKING NOISE AGAIN AT SILENT ICE CENTER
Bruce Mouat remains undefeated at the Silent Ice Center.
Mouat and his Scottish squad posted a perfect record en route to capturing the Canadian Open at the venue last season.
The world No. 1 club moved up to a 2-0 record (six points) in the CO-OP Tour Challenge with a 7-3 victory over Germany’s Team Muskatewitz on Wednesday.
“We’re playing really well, enjoying the ice, and just love this venue,” said Mouat, who also won the Tour Challenge last season in Charlottetown. “I think it’s one of the best ones that we play in. We’re having a good time and hopefully continue.”
Mouat claimed a record four Grand Slam titles in a single season during the 2024-25 campaign and is looking to return to the final here after falling in the semis of the AMJ Masters last month in London, Ont.
“We obviously have good memories from last year. The ice was really good, and it’s shaping up pretty similar to what we had last year,” Mouat said. “We’re enjoying ourselves and looking to get into a Slam final this week. We made a semifinal last Slam, so looking to get back into the final, hopefully.”
The Edmonton Scottish Society just so happens to be located up the road from the arena, and Mouat is hoping he’ll maybe see them in the stands.
“We didn’t check them out last year, and we don’t really know what their society is like, but it is really cool that there are some Scottish people close to us,” Mouat said. “Maybe they’ll come and watch, you never know.”
THOUGHTS ON THINKING TIME
Although the new blank rule is garnering attention, thinking time has been altered for the CO-OP Tour Challenge, down to 30 minutes per team per game.
Thinking time had already been tightened from 33 to 31 minutes during the AMJ Masters, the first Grand Slam of Curling event of the season, as the series looks to speed up the pace of play.
“They’re really trying to stress us out here and speed up this game,” Kerri Einarson said with a laugh after her 8-2 win over Christina Black on Tuesday night. “We were good for time today. We were pretty quick. I told (lead) Karlee (Burgess) and (second) Shannon (Birchard) just be ready, and we knew basically what we were going to throw for the first few shots. They were ready and fast in the hack.”
Niklas Edin explained that his team typically focuses on securing rock placement during the first half of the game and is usually down on the clock by the second half anyway. Fortunately for Edin, he was in the lead during his first game against Mike McEwen by the midway point and maintained control to the end.
“It feels like if you’re down on the clock now, less than half of the time, you’re basically stressing the rest of the way,” Edin said following the 6-4 victory. “We tried to play a little bit faster than normal and just call the shot. The important thing is to make it. Now we had a lot of time, I think we had almost eight minutes going into the last end.
“Time was not an issue in this case, but at the same time, if you’re down one, you’re going to make tougher decisions, tougher shots, then it will be a problem pretty quickly, so you’re going to have to keep playing fast.”
Matt Dunstone, who also sits on the Grand Slam of Curling’s Players' Council, doesn’t understand the need to trim thinking time and said he really dislikes it.
“There’s no real good reason for it,” Dunstone said after his 8-3 win against Rylan Kleiter. “It doesn’t even give us time to think, obviously, with less time, no pun intended, but you don’t even get time to think and actually talk with the team, and you can’t think about any shots. Thirty-three was probably too much. Thirty probably doesn’t make a whole lot of sense either. I thought we were fine with where we had it.”
Dunstone added: “Thirty-one-and-a-half for the next Slam, but that’s the one that I think was something that didn’t need to happen."
WEDNESDAY'S SCHEDULE/RESULTS
Watch every game live on rockchannel.com.
Draw 5
• Fujisawa 6, Skrlik 5
• X. Schwaller 5, Yoshimura 4
• Waddell 9, Dropkin 2
• Edin 5, Carruthers 4
Draw 6
• Hasselborg 6, Black 4
• Lawes 7, Gim 4
• Mouat 7, Muskatewitz 3
• Dunstone 7, Hösli 2
Draw 7: 4 p.m. MT
• Tirinzoni vs. Ha
• Kim vs. Wranå
• Retornaz vs. Koe
• Gushue vs. Kleiter
Draw 8: 8 p.m. MT
• Einarson vs. Tabata
• Homan vs. Constantini
• Whyte vs. Epping
• Y. Schwaller vs. McEwen
