By Jonathan Brazeau
MEDICINE HAT, Alta. — Matt Dunstone presented himself with his own (metaphorical) green jacket.
The Canadian skip successfully defended the P&H Masters men's title with a 7-6 win over Scotland's Team Bruce Mouat in Sunday's final at Co-op Place. His Winnipeg-based club completed an undefeated 7-0 run through the tournament.
Dunstone has now won three championships in the Grand Slam of Curling presented by Molson Canadian, with all three coming at the Masters, claiming his first at the event in 2019.
All three were won in different cities — and in different months of the year, for that matter — but there's something about the Masters that brings out the best in Dunstone, who finished with a 94 per cent ACE score in the final.
FIRST END: It was a unique case when Colton Flasch won the 2018-19 GSOC season championship, then called the Pinty's Cup, with Team Kevin Koe. Consistency was the key in the points race as they didn't win any Grand Slams, but finished runners-up on two occasions. Even at the Champions Cup, held after the season title had been awarded, Koe reached the final again but fell short.
Flasch, who was also a one-time finalist when he played with Steve Laycock, finally got to lift a Grand Slam event trophy as the super spare on Team Dunstone. With second Mark Nichols out due to an upper-body injury, Flasch made the trek from Swift Current, Saskatchewan, where he was competing with his regular clubmates, Team Tyler Tardi, during the previous weekend.
"That had a lot to do with it," Dunstone said. "Swift Current’s right next door kind of thing, right? Not a whole lot of turnaround time between Slams, so we knew we had to move quickly. Flasch is a big boy. He can sweep, easy-going personality. When you have a new guy coming in for the first time, you want someone you know you're going to get along with. Flasch is that kind of guy, and it worked."
You could say Flasch aced the assignment. He finished with a 77 per cent ACE score during the preliminary round and a plus-3 EDGE, good for a top-three finish among all players at his position in the men's division.
SECOND END: Sweden's Team Isabella Wranå fended off the fatigue and maintained the gold medal momentum from the European Curling Championships to win the P&H Masters women's title, defeating Japan's Team Miku Nihira 11-2 in the final.
Wranå also set two Grand Slam women's final records: Most points scored and largest margin of victory.
It was also only the second Grand Slam event for second Moa Dryburgh, who joined the team full-time this season. Maria Larsson shifted over to lead, with Linda Stenlund now at alternate.
Although Wranå went 2-2 (seven points) through the preliminary round, both losses were in shootouts. One of those losses was with the hammer, thus earning a point to keep the team above the tiebreaker zone and on a better playoff path.
Wranå has had quite the calendar year with an Olympic gold medal in mixed doubles, bronze at the women's worlds and now gold at the Euros and a Grand Slam title. The year isn't over yet, either.
"It feels amazing," Wranå said. "Moa has been getting into the lineup really well. It's just a great match, and I'm really eager to see what's in the future."
THIRD END: Despite the lopsided loss in the final, it was an impressive run to get there for Nihira, whose team appeared in a Grand Slam final for the first time following a marathon Saturday with wins over Team Taylor Reese-Hansen in the tiebreaker to qualify, top-seeded Team Eun-ji Gim in the quarterfinals and Team Selena Sturmay in the semifinals.
Let's not forget Nihira went from 0-4 at the Co-op Invitational three weeks ago in Victoria to title contender.
Going from winning two games in four days during the preliminary round to trying to win four games in two days from the tiebreakers through the championship final is no easy feat. It's been done only five times in the women's division, most recently Team Kerri Einarson at the 2022 Champions Cup — i.e., over four years ago, so not exactly recent.
Even winning as a first-time finalist is a daunting task. Counting Nihira, first-time women's finalists hold a 3-7 win-loss record in the past 10 attempts. The most recent team to win the title in their first final appearance? Coincidentally, that would be Wranå at the 2023 Players' Championship.
FOURTH END: Team Yannick Schwaller's last shot in the semifinals against Dunstone became a talking point: Why didn't fourth Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel draw for a single and force the extra end?
Simple. Because he'd have less than a 10 per cent chance of stealing in the extra end against Dunstone. Yes, that stat came out of thin air, but even if the actual number is (slightly) higher, that's still the mindset the team's thinking. The odds are absolutely not ever in your favour.
If you have a shot to win in the eighth end, you take it, and Schwarz-van Berkel didn't miss it by much.
Besides, if it had gone to an extra and Dunstone wins as expected, the Swiss squad would have regretted not going for it.
FIFTH END: Kudos to Sturmay for qualifying for the playoffs and reaching the semifinals: both Grand Slam firsts for the Edmonton-based squad.
Sturmay won the prestigious Autumn Gold Curling Classic last month to earn a satellite event berth for the P&H Masters.
Her team went 3-1 through the preliminary round, including a shootout win over Team Rachel Homan. Sturmay was victorious in the rematch against Homan during the quarterfinals. A loss to Nihira in the semifinals ended Sturmay's run, but not before her team proved they belonged.
SIXTH END: Japan's Team Ikue Kitazawa also qualified for the playoffs for the first time in a Grand Slam event after missing the cut in five previous appearances.
Kitazawa went 3-1 through the P&H Masters preliminary round, avenging the loss to Team Alina Pätz in the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champs Team Wranå in the semis.
The Nagano-based club has had quite the season with two title wins, and was coming off a run to the final at the RBC Dominion Securities Western Showdown held during the previous weekend in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.
Kitazawa finished the preliminary round with an 81 per cent ACE score, leading all women's skips with a plus-16 EDGE. Minori Suzuki was also first among all seconds with an 80 per cent ACE and a plus-11 EDGE.
Japan's depth in the women's division right now is incredible. Five Japanese women's teams are ranked within the top 15 in the world, more than any other country.
Team Satsuki Fujisawa paved the way as a mainstay in the Grand Slams for almost a decade and started this season at No. 8. The 2023 Canadian Open champs could miss the qualification cut for future events, with Fujisawa now at No. 14.
SEVENTH END: The P&H Masters was a nice rebound for Mouat and for Canada's Team Rachel Homan, after both missed the playoffs at the Co-op Invitational.
No teams won more Grand Slams during the previous quad than they did, with Mouat taking seven and Homan capturing nine.
With Mouat and Homan opting for lighter schedules to start the season, they can't afford to miss the playoffs too many times in Grand Slams, or they'll risk not qualifying for the GSOC Players' Cup, Dec. 15-20, in Kingston, Ontario. Instead of world rankings, points accumulated from satellite events and Grand Slams are used for qualification into the fifth and final event, with only the top 12 teams guaranteed invites.
Mouat moved up to No. 8 on the men's side with his runner-up result, while Homan remains on the outside in the women's division, tied for 16th.
There's still next week's GSOC HearingLife National in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and the GSOC Open, Dec. 1-6, in Thunder Bay, Ontario, before the cutoff date.
EIGHTH END: Was that the spookiest Slam or what? We had a burned rock in a shootout, a double blank, and a double shootout during the preliminary round.
The burned rock in a shootout and the double blank were firsts in the series, and both were accidental.
Pablo Lachat-Couchepin was trying to get Team Yannick Schwaller's stone to curl closer to the pin — knowing full well Team Marco Hösli would land on the lid with their attempt after — and made contact with the granite. Just like in the pre-game draw for hammer, the rock was removed, and Schwaller was given the maximum distance from the pin. Philipp Hösli, who throws last rocks for his brother Marco, delivered his team's draw and reached the button, even though he only needed to place it anywhere in the house.
Fortunately for Team Schwaller, because they had the hammer in the shootout, they still earned one point for the loss. If they didn't have the hammer, they wouldn't have earned any points — which would have dropped them one place in the final round-robin standings. Oddly enough, instead of Team Grant Hardie, they would have played Hösli in a rematch in the quarterfinals.
Speaking of Team Hardie, fourth Ross Whyte was looking to put points on the board in the sixth end against Koe, but his shooter ended up outside of the house, and the rock he raised rolled right through the rings as well. A tricky shot that just didn't go their way.
That handed Koe the hammer for the seventh, with his team scoring a deuce to take a 4-3 lead. Again, fortunately for Whyte, his team managed to take two back in the eighth to win 5-4 and brush aside the sixth-end flub.
We had a double shootout last year, but the one between Team Anna Hasselborg and Team Eun-ji Gim was a first under the modified rules, with a different shooter and one sweeper throwing the second time, as opposed to the same shooter with no sweepers.
After the skips covered the pin, both teams turned to their leads in the second round. Ye-eun Seol landed at the top of the eight-foot circle for Team Gim, and Sofia Scharback had her shooter stop just in time at the back of the four-foot circle for Team Hasselborg to win 7-6.
What's next? A triple shootout?
EXTRA END: We're now into the busy stretch of the Grand Slam schedule, with the HearingLife National starting next Tuesday at Centre 200 in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Full-event, weekend and day passes, plus single draw tickets, are available. Visit GSOCtickets.com to purchase yours today.
The matches have been set for the preliminary round. CLICK HERE to see the draw schedule.
