MEDICINE HAT, Alta. — Canada's Matt Dunstone probably wishes every event in the Grand Slam of Curling presented by Molson Canadian was called the P&H Masters.
Dunstone has won two titles in the series, both at the Masters, claiming his first in 2019 and his second a year ago.
The Winnipeg skip and his club reached Championship Sunday in the event once again after defeating Yannick Schwaller's Swiss squad 5-3 in Saturday's semifinals.
Dunstone will meet familiar foes, Team Bruce Mouat, as the Scottish side dispatched Switzerland's Team Marco Hösli 7-3 on the other side of the bracket.
After his latest Masters title win, Dunstone finished runner-up in back-to-back events to Mouat at the Tour Challenge and GSOC Tahoe. Dunstone, who ended the Slam season by missing the playoffs at the Canadian Open and Players' Championship, said it feels great to return to the final.
"We struggled a little bit in the last handful of Slams, so it feels good to be back, and awesome to be playing Bruce," Dunstone said. "He nipped us a couple of times last year, so it's only fitting we kind of both get on the right track and end up in the final together."
It's also a return to form for Mouat. The 12-time Grand Slam champ missed the playoffs in his first two events this season, including the GSOC Co-op Invitational three weeks ago in Victoria.
"Just been a really good week for us," Mouat said. "We've played really good curling. I’m very proud of the way that we bounced back after Victoria, which was not that long ago, so yeah, a good turnaround."
Both Dunstone and Mouat are part of the "Class of 2016" world juniors, a stacked field that also includes Schwaller. Mouat captured gold in that event, defeating Korey Dropkin in the final, while Dunstone earned bronze with a win over Schwaller.
"The gauntlet never ends," Dunstone said with a smile. "I mean, it's a very impressive group. Yannick is a very well-deserved No. 1 ranked team in the world right now. Clearly, they are the best team in the world. Just got a couple breaks late, and we were able to make it work. Nice to finally get them because it feels like it's been a while."
Schwaller struck the scoreboard first by stealing a point in the opening frame. Neither team could generate much offence, with just singles back and forth until late in the game when Dunstone scored the go-ahead deuce in the seventh to lead 4-3 without the hammer coming home.
What happened in the crazy eighth end could only be described as bananas — fittingly, as many in the audience were wearing banana costumes.
Team Dunstone third Colton Lott was looking to make a cross-house double, but caught only a piece of the second Schwaller stone as it held on to the rings. That allowed Schwaller to make an open hit and have two stones on opposite sides of the house.
After Dunstone hit and rolled to the back of the eight-foot circle, a rare missed draw from Team Schwaller fourth Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel, with his shooter rubbing and rolling off the shot rock, allowed Dunstone to draw on top and sit two.
It looked like an extra end was in the cards until Team Schwaller switched gears from the draw for a single and opted for a Hail Mary angle raise into the cluster to win outright. Schwarz-van Berkel couldn't quite pull it off, as Dunstone remained the shot rock.
"Mayhem, man," Dunstone said. "It's just very different. Early on, you're trying to figure out a fine line like, ‘Do we go after it? Do we try and hit our way out of this, or do we try and finesse it and see where the chips fall at the end of it?’ It just felt like we had an opportunity to hit out and we did."
"I mean, Colt missed one underneath by half a centimetre, right? If that's the case, then we're probably playing an extra end as we speak. I mean, just got a little bit fortunate we had a shot at the end and made it."
Meanwhile, Mouat never trailed in his match against Hösli, breaking a 2-all tie with a three-ender in the fourth. After Hösli was held to one in the fifth, Mouat added two more points in the sixth.
Mouat will play in his first Grand Slam final with newly minted third Robin Brydone, who came on board during the off-season after Grant Hardie moved on to skip Ross Whyte's team.
Mouat credits "really good conversations" for the turnaround after Victoria.
"It was only our second event there, but we are still learning a lot, with Robin and the team and communication styles," Mouat said. "I think that was probably the big thing that we focused on when we got home. Pretty proud of having those tough conversations and being mature enough to be able to have them and bounce back into this event."
Both teams enter Sunday's final with unblemished 6-0 records. Watch live at 12:30 p.m. EST / 11:30 a.m. ABT on Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, ESPN+, BBC iPlayer, DAZN, or Rock Channel.
Earlier Saturday, Dunstone dispatched Team Danny Casper of the United States 7-5, and Mouat bounced Canada's Team Brendan Bottcher 6-5 in the quarterfinals.
