STEINBACH, Man. — The wait has definitely been worth it for skip Kerri Einarson.
Einarson was a fan in the stands when Selkirk hosted the Masters in the fall of 2014, as she wondered what it would be like to play in front of a home crowd.
That was the most recent Grand Slam of Curling event featuring men's and women's divisions that was held in Manitoba until the series returned this week for the Crown Royal Players' Championship.
The near-capacity crowd, featuring family and friends, erupted as Einarson and her Gimli-based club secured a spot in the women's final, eliminating Ottawa's Team Rachel Homan 7-6 in an all-Canadian clash during Saturday's semifinals.
It was the second extra-end victory of the day for Einarson, who stole one in OT against Sweden's Team Isabella Wranå to win 8-7 during the afternoon quarterfinals.
"I’ve definitely given the crowd something to cheer about this week," Einarson said. "It's been pretty amazing, and I hope we have some more coming back here."
Tied 1-1, Einarson scored a key deuce in the third end to pull ahead. Her double angle raise looked like a miss until it caught Homan's rock at the top of the house at the right spot to roll in and complete the takeout.
"It just took a little bit of a jump," Einarson explained. "We had it at the hog line and then all of a sudden it just took a bit of a jump, but some breaks came our way, and they also had a few. That's just curling and the way it goes."
After singles and deuces back and forth, Homan held the hammer coming home trailing by two.
Einarson's bump shot on her last of the eighth end sent the raised rock too deep, giving Homan a potential shot for three, the win and a spot in the final.
Homan wasn't able to draw her shooter in, though, but a measurement gave her the two points needed to push it into OT.
Still, Einarson had the hammer, although she didn't need to throw her last. Homan bumped off her own stone, leaving Einarson's shot rock untouched.
The six-time Grand Slam champ Einarson will take on Silvana Tirinzoni, whose Swiss squad has reached all five Grand Slam finals this season, and six straight in the series, stretching back to last year's Players' Championship.
Alina Pätz, who throws the last rocks for Tirinzoni, credits hard work as the reason why the team has been so successful in the series.
"I think we try to play our best every time we go on the ice," Pätz said. "It's not always working, but we just work hard, try to support each other on the ice, and so far it's working for us this season."
Tirinzoni, who earned a bye to the semifinals, topped South Korea's Team Eun-ji Gim 7-4 on the other side of the bracket.
"It feels amazing, especially after that game," Pätz said. "I think we struggled a bit in the first half. They outplayed us in the first half. Just happy that … we could have turned it over in that game and to get away with the win."
Pätz conceded a steal to start and fell behind 3-1 when Gim made a raise takeout for a deuce in the third. After Pätz was forced to hit for a single in the fourth, the momentum swung in the second half.
Gim gave a point in the fifth when she hit and rolled out on a double takeout, and she was short on a draw in the sixth to surrender two more to trail 5-3.
After Gim was limited to one in the seventh, Tirinzoni tacked on two points with the hammer coming home.
The double defending Players' champ Tirinzoni is one win away from accomplishing something no other men's or women's skip has done before: three-peating in the prestigious event.
"That would mean a lot," Pätz said. "That would just be like another little point to be even better. I don't know. It's just that it would be amazing."
Tirinzoni finished runner-up to Homan in the first three women's finals in the series this season and defeated Japan's Team Satsuki Fujisawa for the HearingLife Canadian Open title three weeks ago in Saskatoon to claim a sixth career Grand Slam title.
Einarson beat Tirinzoni 5-4 during pool play Friday night, with a thrilling draw on the lid for the winning point. It'll likely be another close one.
"Definitely just making sure we're controlling the front, taking any opportunities that come our way to capitalize," Einarson said. "Just focus on ourselves and do what we do best."
Pätz is also looking forward to it and doesn't mind if her team is entering hostile territory with a pro-Einarson crowd.
"We are really used to having the crowd cheering against us, so that's not new for us, but it's going to be great," she said. "It's a nice team. They're nice people. They play really well, so we just need to bring our A game if we want to beat them."
WHYTE, WADDELL MEET FOR MEN'S TITLE
After nine consecutive Grand Slam men's finals with at least one Scottish team, the 10th time will feature two.
Team Ross Whyte and Team Kyle Waddell will square off in the second-ever all-Scottish showdown for a title in the series.
Both teams advanced with identical 5-4 scores in the semifinals. Whyte ousted Switzerland's Team Yannick Schwaller and Waddell defeated China's Team Xu Xiaoming.
It's the third Grand Slam final of the season for Whyte, who finished runner-up to Canada's Team Matt Dunstone in the AMJ Masters in September and to Schwaller in the HearingLife Canadian Open.
"Yeah, it's a great feeling," Whyte said. "Our third one this year, and it feels like we'd love to get over the line at least one time this year. It feels like we really deserve it.
"We're going to come out firing tomorrow. These boys are good mates of ours, but it's going to mean nothing out there. We're going to try and win out as much as we can."
Whyte was in trouble through the first half, needing to make a triple takeout with his first skip stone in the second end and then hitting and sticking for a single on his last to tie it 1-1.
After Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel hit for the go-ahead point in the third, the pressure was on Whyte again as he faced four counters in the fourth. Whyte drew to cut the damage down to a single steal.
Whyte had to settle for a single in five, as his double wasn't enough for two, but he stole two points and a 4-3 lead in the sixth as Schwarz-van Berkel drew deep.
The lone multiple-point end of the game was the difference. Team Schwaller tied it up with a single in seven, but Whyte didn't need to throw his last in eight as he already sat shot rock, and Schwarz-van Berkel was unable to bump the pile hard enough to outcount it.
"Yeah, that was a tough game. Benoît and the boys gave us nothing," Whyte said. "We really had to grind it out. The fourth end, where we could have lost three or four, we made a really good draw, good team shot, to try and give up the steal of one, and then kind of battled on.
"Thankfully, we kind of took advantage. We got a good miss in six, then we really put on the pressure, so it was a great feeling."
Meanwhile, Waddell converted for a deuce in the first and had Xu chasing from there with singles back and forth.
Xu took two in the seventh to finally tie it up, but Waddell made no mistake on the last rock of the game, throwing his shooter down a path that was as close to his stone at the top of the house without wrecking to pick out Xu's shot rock and win it.
"They played a bit of a strange game, just like strategy-wise," Waddell said. "We just kind of felt like we were making a lot of shots. We just had to kind of stick with them because they were playing quite defensively, which I was surprised at, to be honest, but it always felt like we had control of the game.
"When it's a level game going down to the last, you know you need to make all your shots and especially that last one. Thankfully, they gave us a little piece, which made my job a little easier."
Waddell will play in his first Grand Slam final as a skip. Both he and his brother, Craig Waddell, joined forces with Mark Watt, Angus Bryce and Blair Haswell last summer. The "transfer window" was still open, though. Craig was shipped to Whyte's team at the start of the season to fill in for second Duncan McFadzean, who is recovering from knee surgery. The younger Waddell has fit in seamlessly with Whyte, Robin Brydone and Euan Kyle.
Whyte captured the Masters last season, with the first anniversary of his maiden title victory approaching in nine days.
Waddell claimed the National in December 2018 while throwing third stones for Ross Paterson. That championship game was the first all-Scottish men's final in the series as Paterson defeated Team Bruce Mouat.
"Not many teams have managed to beat Bruce in a final of a Slam, so it's probably not a bad thing to have," said Waddell said, who will actually join Mouat as his team's alternate for the Winter Olympics. "Yeah, good memories of that and hopefully more of the same tomorrow."
Scottish teams have been dominating the division. Mouat won a record four Grand Slams in a single season last year and combined with Whyte to sweep the five men's titles in the series. The world No. 1 Mouat also claimed back-to-back championships in the fall at the CO-OP Tour Challenge and KIOTI GSOC Tahoe.
"Continuing the somewhat dominance that the Scottish teams have had in the men's side is brilliant. It shows that we're doing a lot of good things back home," Waddell said.
"The best thing for me is that I think it just inspires the younger guys that are in the program right now. Like when I was their age, I didn't think you could be a full-time curler. Now they know that they can come here and everything that's happened at this level is great. It seems positive. Hopefully it'll be a good final, and hopefully we win."
The men's final kicks off Championship Sunday at noon ET / 11 a.m. CT, followed by the women's final at 4:30 p.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. CT.
Watch live on watch.rockchannel.com with broadcast coverage in Canada on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
