By Jonathan Brazeau
STATELINE, Nev. — When the Grand Slam of Curling was created, Wayne Middaugh didn’t imagine he’d be playing in an event during the 25th season of the series and in Lake Tahoe, no less.
The 58-year-old Middaugh, who was recently inducted into the World Curling Hall of Fame, is skipping a special team this week at the KIOTI GSOC Tahoe featuring two-time Olympic gold medallist John Morris at third, U.S. Olympian Jason Smith at second and NFL legend Jared Allen at lead.
Call it comeback season as Middaugh took Team Ross Whyte to the distance in their first game Tuesday, with the Scottish squad needing a shootout to pull off the 10-9 victory.
"It's like a pinch-me treat," Middaugh said. "It really was, and to be playing with Jared, how cool is that? Johnny Mo and I have always butted heads, but he's always been somebody I thought was a fantastic player. So to get to play with him, too, it's a great treat, and to meet Jason. We've had a ton of fun already and only played one game."
QUICK LINKS: DRAW SCHEDULE | BROADCAST SCHEDULE | STANDINGS
Middaugh’s former teammate Glenn Howard didn’t expect it would happen either, but was more than happy to help his longtime friend prepare for the event.
"It's so cool," said Howard, who is now coaching Yannick Schwaller's team. "Obviously, I knew he got the call. He's one of my best friends. I see him two or three times a week all year long. I held the broom for him last week because he wanted to go out and make a few shots.
"It was so exciting to see him out there. Every time he puts on the shoes, he expects to win, and him and Johnny Mo, like what a game. That was really cool to see."
Middaugh was one of the Original 18 skips who pledged to support the Grand Slam of Curling when the series formed, forgoing Brier playdowns and giving up the opportunity to represent Canada at the world championship during the early years.
With the Grand Slam of Curling now in its 25th season, the KIOTI GSOC Tahoe marks a new chapter for the series as its first international event.
"It's unbelievable how the Grand Slams have grown," said Middaugh, who has won 15 Grand Slam titles, including eight as a skip. "To be here in Lake Tahoe and to be playing a Grand Slam, I would have never guessed it would have gotten this far. It's an absolutely fantastic way for players to improve and to be the best."
Howard has been around since the start of the series as well and echoed those sentiments.
“Grand Slams have been everything,” he said. “They've done so many rule changes. They've revolutionized the sport in many ways because of rule changes. I love the fact that it's expanding. The sky's the limit.
"We're down here in Tahoe, what a beautiful facility, a beautiful city. Hopefully, we get a few more people, that would be nice, but regardless, it's really cool that we're moving around the country and North America. I think it's great for the game.”
The game against Whyte, two-time reigning Scottish champion and winner of last season's Masters, was a wild back-and-forth battle. Middaugh opened with the hammer and scored three off the bat, then added a deuce in the third end to lead 5-2. Whyte charged with a three-ender in the fourth to tie it, held Middaugh to a single in the fifth, then scored four in the sixth to lead 9-6.
You can never count out Middaugh, who scored an equalizing three points in the eighth end to force a shootout. Middaugh reached the button, but needed to cover the pinhole to match Whyte’s shot.
Still, the shootout gave his team a point on the board.
"They played nice with us, so that was good. First game of the week, so both teams are figuring out the ice," Middaugh said. "But it's a ride to be back in the Grand Slams and just to see how much they've changed and how athletic the players are and how things have gotten.
"It's a real treat to be back here after playing in the first one 20-some years ago."
AND BEARS, OH MY!
Kevin Martin isn't the only Ol' Bear in town, it seems. As the curlers have taken in the sights of sounds of scenic Lake Tahoe, Mike McEwen had an incredible encounter with some local wildlife.
McEwen spotted a bear while out for a walk and managed to snap a selfie.
The seven-time Grand Slam champion can laugh about it now, but he said the funny thing is, he was thinking about going for a hike outside of town and looked up: Are there bears around?
"I didn't have to leave town for that to actually happen,” McEwen said with a smile. “Three blocks from the hotel, I was just strolling, listening to some good tunes, and I don't think I even noticed the bear until I was about 20 feet away from it. Probably reasonably friendly, I guess. He wasn't bothered by me, but yeah, my heart rate shot up probably for a second there when I realized what the heck was in front of me.
“I was kind of just dumbfounded and then had that questionable line of thinking: Do I take a couple pictures? And I better be ready to run just in case. I've never seen a bear close up like that, like not in the wild — if you can call in town the wild — but I guess it's not a zoo or anything.”
In hindsight and in the safety of the arena, McEwen said it was a cool experience, despite some questionable decision-making at the time.
“It sounds like they're not bothered, but maybe don't go peeking your heads in any culverts. You might get a surprise at what’s in there,” McEwen said. “I didn't think a bear could fit in there, but he squeezed in there.”
Other than bears, McEwen is enjoying his time in Tahoe and likened it to “Banff on steroids.”
“Especially when you cross the state line (into Nevada) and then you’ve got the casino buildings and the bright lights, so it's kind of strange,” he said. “We've got that, and then three blocks away, we were sitting, having lunch at an outdoor bar, picnic tables, fire pits around. I think they have live music there every night. You’ve got forests all around you, but then you look to your right and you’ve got a towering casino, so it's quite the contrast. It's a very unique place, beautiful.”
McEwen was looking forward to the Grand Slam scheduled for Las Vegas in 2021 until the COVID-19 pandemic halted plans. He's hopeful this is the beginning of more international events for the series (with fewer bears, of course).
"We've been waiting for this for a while," he said. "I remember, maybe five years ago, we were scheduled to go to Vegas. That was very exciting, so finally we're here, and what a destination. It's stunning. ... I wish we had gone international a long time ago, but hopefully this is a great stepping stone for the future of the Slams."
PIN TO WIN
Another day, another shootout win where Whyte had to cover the pin to secure the victory.
Whyte came out on top over Germany’s Team Marc Muskatewitz to win 5-4 Wednesday morning.
“Yeah, aye, that was a tough game,” Whyte said. “To be honest, those boys didn't really miss. We'd made a lot of good hit and rolls, pretty much perfect, and they were chasing everything. It just felt like it was gonna be one of those games, it was gonna come down to one shot.”
After giving up a steal and the lead in the seventh, Whyte held the hammer coming home down by a point but was able to count only the equalizing single.
“I had a decent chance on my shot in eight, my first one, to put a wee bit of pressure on them and just came up a touch short, which didn't leave us a chance for two,” Whyte said. “But it's important to keep putting those wins on the board, whether it's draw shot or not.”
Whyte now has four points from his two shootout wins with two more games to go in preliminary play. Considering it’s Nevada, it’s fitting that the lucky number to guarantee a spot in the playoffs in this format is usually seven points. Six might be enough, depending on how things shake out, but that would mean yet another shootout for Whyte.
“It's one of those competitions if we know six points probably gets at least a tiebreaker, maybe out, maybe through, depending on a draw shot, so that's the magic number to make sure we're still in contention,” Whyte said. “Now we've put ourselves in a spot where one full win gets us in, and if we can win our next two, it's full money and it's happy days. We're plugging away, we're making a lot of shots and hopefully, we can try and convert them to full wins.”
SHOT OF THE DAY
The day just started, but it’s going to take something spectacular to top Isabella Wranå’s raise in-off to score two points against Eun-ji Gim.
This might just be a shot of the year contender as well.
WEDNESDAY'S SCHEDULE/RESULTS
Watch every game live on rockchannel.com.
Draw 5
• Whyte 5, Muskatewitz 4 (shootout)
• Waddell 6, Kleiter 3
• Gim 7, Wranå 5
• Yoshimura 6, Lawes 4
Draw 6
• Edin 11, Allen 1
• McDonald 11, Hösli 5
• X. Schwaller 6, Ha 5
• Einarson 6, Wang 3
Draw 7: 6:30 p.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. PT
• Jacobs vs. Xu
• Y. Schwaller vs. Epping
• Kitazawa vs. Morrison
• Tirinzoni vs. Fujisawa
Draw 8: 10:30 p.m. ET / 7:30 p.m. PT
• Mouat vs. McEwen
• Dunstone vs. Retornaz
• Homan vs. Tabata
• Hasselborg vs. Kang
ABOUT THE KIOTI GSOC TAHOE
The KIOTI GSOC Tahoe is the third stop of the Grand Slam of Curling season, featuring 16 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams from around the world, at the Tahoe Blue Event Center.
The preliminary round runs through to Friday evening, with the top eight teams advancing to the playoffs. If necessary, one tiebreaker round will be played Saturday morning. The quarterfinals and semifinals are scheduled for Saturday, with both finals on tap Sunday.
Teams can blank only one end per game. If a team blanks again at any other point in the game, they will lose the hammer.
There are no extra ends. If a game is tied after eight ends, even in the playoffs, a draw-to-the-button shootout will determine the winner.
During the preliminary round, teams receive three points for a regulation win (in eight ends or fewer), two points for a shootout win, and one point for a shootout loss.
Tickets are available at ticketmaster.com. Broadcast coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ begins Thursday with Draw 10 at 2:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. PT.
