SASKATOON — Bruce Mouat and his Scottish squad are flying high again, but that wasn’t the case when they were last at Merlis Belsher Place.
Mouat missed the cut when the venue hosted the Masters two years ago. Over the following 10 Grand Slam of Curling events, the team captured seven men’s titles and reached the semifinals in the other three.
The reigning world champions have clinched a playoff berth in an 11th consecutive Grand Slam event, improving to a 3-0 record at the HearingLife Tour Challenge with a 7-4 win Thursday over Team Casper of the United States.
“It's been pretty nuts, to be honest, kind of like a fairy tale, I guess,” said Hammy McMillan Jr., who throws lead stones for Team Mouat.
McMillan pointed to the 2024 World Men’s Curling Championship in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, where the team fell short of the podium, as the moment when everything changed.
“I think that was a massive turning point for us, then things started to really click,” McMillan said. “We reassessed our goals, and I guess that's what made us really consistent over the last two years.”
McMillan said the team would absolutely love to close out the 2025 calendar with a third consecutive Grand Slam title victory, after claiming back-to-back trophies at the CO-OP Tour Challenge and KIOTI GSOC Tahoe.
“Winning these Grand Slams, it's a massive part of our careers and Team Mouat’s identity,” McMillan said. “To finish off 2025, going into the Players’ (Championship) in January and then the Olympics in February, this is our third last event as a team this season. It's pretty nuts to think about it that way, but yeah, it'd be awesome to end this week, this year, with a W.”
Team Casper was playing without Danny Casper, as alternate Rich Ruohonen rotated into the lineup to skip and throw lead stones while third Luc Violette handled last rock duties.
Although Mouat didn’t start with the last-rock advantage, he managed to flip the hammer, forcing the American club to a single in the first and made a tap for two points plus a 2-1 lead in the second.
Violette wrecked on a guard in the third to give up a steal of three, but he recovered with a nifty bump shot in the fourth to unlock Mouat’s rock and score a deuce to close the gap to 5-3.
The early deficit was too much to overcome, as it was singles back and forth on the board from there.
Team Casper held the hammer coming home, but ran out of rocks after Mouat made a double.
“We've controlled the games from the start," McMillan said. "Maybe we haven't been just as clinical to see them out, but 3-0 and to qualify is always good.”
Casper, No. 8 in the world rankings, was eliminated from playoff contention at 0-3.
JACOBS UPENDS GUSHUE IN BATTLE OF THE BRADS
It's been one of curling's greatest matchups in modern times, spanning Grand Slam of Curling events, Briers, Olympic trials and pre-trials and everywhere else on tour.
The Battle of the Brads, Brad Jacobs vs. Brad Gushue, is always a tense showdown, even as we reach the final chapters of this storied rivalry, with Gushue set to retire at the end of the season.
Jacobs came out on top this time, scoring three key points in the seventh end to lift his Calgary-based club to a 6-4 victory over Gushue's crew from St. John's, N.L.
And what a shot it was as Jacobs sizzled with a runback double takeout.
That evens their all-time head-to-head record at 33-33 in men's play. (Sidenote: Gushue also defeated Jacobs in the 2017 Everest Curling Challenge, but we're not counting that one as they played on one-off mixed teams.)
Will we see a rubber match to settle it once and for all, or was this latest game their last against each other?
Both teams now hold 2-1 records and six points apiece in the tournament, so it's possible their paths may cross again in the tiebreakers or playoffs should they advance.
The final time they could meet after that would be during the Montana's Brier in March in Gushue's hometown. Who could forget the last time they met at the Mary Brown's Centre? However, there's no guarantee they'll face off there either.
THE MEMORY REMAINS
While the 2023 Masters didn't go Mouat's way, it was a wild week for compatriot Ross Whyte as he reached his first career Grand Slam final following a marathon three-win day rolling through the tiebreakers, quarterfinals and semifinals.
Although Italy's Joël Retornaz came out on top to win the championship, it was a breakout performance for Whyte and signalled his arrival as a top contender.
Being back in the building has stirred up the positive vibes. It helps that there is a bit of deja vu to spark that. Whyte kicked off that magical three-win day with a victory over Sweden's Niklas Edin in a tiebreaker. Lo and behold, Whyte and Edin squared off again Thursday on the same sheet.
Whyte was victorious again, this time with a 7-3 decision, to get back into the win column and improve to a 2-1 record.
"They are very good memories," said Whyte, who returned to the Masters final last season and captured his first Grand Slam title. "It was the first final we'd ever made, same building, same sheet we played Edin on last time, which we kind of said before the game that you never know what these games are going to do and what they're gonna end up at, but thankfully we won it. Hopefully, we can create the good memories we had last time."
Down by one, Whyte took the lead with a deuce in the fourth and stole one in the fifth to hold a 4-2 advantage.
Edin was forced to a single in the sixth, and the gloves came off after Whyte connected on an open hit for three in the seventh.
"It was a great win there against a very good and very talented Team Edin, really," Whyte said. "I’m very pleased to come out here, put in a good performance and get to that two wins. Hopefully, we can try and put another one on the board."
It was the first loss of the week for Edin, who earned his record-extending eighth European Championships gold medal late last month and now also sits at 2-1 with six points.
ROCK LEAGUE READY TO ROLL
The Curling Group, which owns and operates the Grand Slam of Curling, announced on Thursday the dates and locations for the 2026 and 2027 seasons of Rock League.
The all-new professional curling league will feature six mixed-gendered franchises featuring five men's curlers and five women's curlers. Franchises will compete in various disciplines, including men's, women's and mixed play plus mixed doubles. Strategic advisors and Olympic gold medallists Jennifer Jones and John Morris assembled the rosters, which were revealed Tuesday.
McMillan will be part of Alpine Curling Club, featuring Alina Pätz as captain and Scottish curling legend Eve Muirhead as general manager.
"I'm absolutely buzzing, I'm not gonna lie," McMillan said. "I posted a wee video earlier. It's given me that, as I said, Continental Cup, Ryder Cup kind of vibes.
"We've got Eve as a GM, Alina as captain, Oskar (Eriksson), Emma (Miskew), Joël. We've got some really top curlers that every single one of our roster, I would say, is pretty amazing. So, now looking forward to April."
Whyte is very pleased to join Maple United, with Rachel Homan serving as captain.
"We have nine great athletes on my team, all very good curlers, accomplished in their own ways. I think bringing all of us together is going to make a great team — and general manager Glenn Howard — we couldn't ask for more, so we've got a great chance," Whyte said.
"I believe we're going to have a lot of fun and there's going to be a lot of good curling played, so hopefully we can go and do a really good job."
Rock League will hit the ice with a seven-day preview season, April 6-12, 2026, at TMU's Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, to catch the post-Olympic wave before expanding with a five-week season in 2027.
THURSDAY'S ROUNDUP
Team Matt Dunstone's streak of Grand Slam of Curling finals will end at three. The Canadian club dropped to 0-3 and will miss the playoffs after losing 9-4 to Team Marc Muskatewitz in Draw 10.
The German club clinched a spot with seven points, with two regulation wins and a shootout loss.
Team Yannick Schwaller (3-0) punched a playoff ticket with a 7-5 win over Team Marco Hösli in an all-Swiss showdown.
Meanwhile, Canada's Team Rachel Homan and Team Kerri Einarson plus South Korea's Team Seung-youn Ha clinched playoff berths with unblemished 3-0 records on the women's side.
Ha defeated Japan's Team Ikue Kitazawa 6-4 in Draw 9, while Homan topped South Korea's Team Eun-jung Kim 6-3 in Draw 11 and Einarson also doubled up on Italy's Team Stefania Constantini 6-3 in Draw 12.
We can also confirm there will be tiebreakers on Saturday morning. Although we don't know who will be playing in them yet, feel free to start setting your alarm(s).
Draw 9
• Gim 7, Kang 4
• Retornaz 5, McEwen 3
• Waddell 7, Kleiter 2
• Ha 6, Kitazawa 4
Draw 10
• Hasselborg 8, Fujisawa 1
• Muskatewitz 9, Dunstone 4
• Mouat 7, Casper 4
• Wang 7, X. Schwaller 3
Draw 11
• Tirinzoni 9, Tabata 2
• Shuster 9, Epping 4
• Whyte 7, Edin 3
• Homan 6, Kim 3
Draw 12
• Yoshimura 8, Morrison 3
• Jacobs 6, Gushue 4
• Y. Schwaller 7, Hoesli 5
• Einarson 6, Constantini 3
