By Jonathan Brazeau
LONDON, Ont. — Canada's Team Rachel Homan came out on top over Sweden's Team Isabella Wranå 6-5 Wednesday during the first shootout in the AMJ Masters.
Instead of extra ends, the first Grand Slam of Curling event of the season features a draw to the button to determine the winner during the preliminary round and tiebreakers.
Homan went first and landed right on the lid, while Wranå's shot rolled deep.
The 17-time Grand Slam women's champion Homan climbed to a 1-1-0-0 record (five points) in preliminary play. Wranå is at 0-0-1-1 (one point).
"It impacts the strategy so much to not have that extra end," Team Homan lead Sarah Wilkes said. "It felt really good having Rachel just throw that out-turn draw to have that information going into the shootout."
It's a homecoming event for Wilkes, who lives in London, and she couldn't wait for the event to begin to showcase her hometown to her teammates and competitors. Now that the AMJ Masters is underway, she said it's been going great.
"Just having the family support in the crowd, seeing my neighbours in the crowd and people from the local curling clubs that I see all the time and my parents and my daughter, it’s been a lot of fun," Wilkes said. "I’m really enjoying it."
Elsewhere in the draw, South Korea's Team Eun-ji Gim (1-0-0-1) got into the win column with a 7-2 victory over Canada's Team Christina Black (1-0-0-1).
In men's play, Italy's Team Joël Retornaz (2-0-0-0) earned an 8-6 victory over Switzerland's Team Yannick Schwaller (0-0-0-2).
Canada's Team Matt Dunstone (2-0-0-0) also maintained the momentum, with a 6-3 decision against Norway's Team Magnus Ramsfjell (1-0-0-1).
UP NEXT
Round-robin play resumes with Draw 7 at 3:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 p.m. PT. Tickets are available at GSOCtickets.com with live online streaming at rockchannel.com.
Broadcast coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ begins with Draw 10 Thursday at 11:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. PT.
NOTES
The AMJ Masters features 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams.
Preliminary play runs through to Friday with the top eight teams qualifying for the playoffs. If necessary, tiebreakers will be played Saturday morning. The quarterfinals and semifinals are set for Saturday. Both finals are scheduled for Sunday.
Teams receive three points for a regulation win (in eight ends or less), two points for a shootout win and one point for a shootout loss.
Extra ends return for the playoff rounds.
