STEINBACH, Man. — It was a very good day at the office for Rachel Homan at the Crown Royal Players' Championship.
Her Canadian club started Friday at No. 11 in the women's standings, but ended things at No. 2, qualifying for the playoffs and receiving a bye to the semifinals.
Homan (3-0-0-2) picked up six critical points with a 9-5 victory over Sweden's Team Anna Hasselborg in a matinee matchup and an 8-2 rout over Team Tabitha Peterson of the United States during the sold-out evening draw.
"It's nice to have two games today to kind of get some momentum going," said Tracy Fleury, who throws third stones for the Ottawa-based Team Homan. "We just keep trying to learn from each shot out there and played a good game tonight."
The record 20-time Grand Slam champ Homan will see both opponents again in a few short weeks as they'll meet at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
"Two great opponents," Fleury said. "We like playing against teams that give us good games like them, so it forces us to be sharp out there."
Homan opened with a huge four-ender in the first against Peterson and never looked back.
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Homan had the best last stone draw total among the teams at nine points to earn the bye.
"It's been a good week for our shootout," Fleury said. "We have a few on the pin, so that's something that's always so important at these events."
The capacity crowd went wild for Manitoba's own Team Kerri Einarson as the Gimli-based club also completed a six-point day to qualify for the playoffs, capping the night with a 5-4 win over Switzerland's Team Silvana Tirinzoni.
Tied coming home, Einarson landed right on the lid with her draw shot for the winning point as the place went bananas — and not just those dressed up in costume in the Jackpotcity lounge.
Einarson overcame the odds as it was her first victory over Tirinzoni since November 2019, snapping an 11-game losing streak in head-to-head matchups.
"Yeah, it was awesome," said Shannon Birchard, who throws second stones for Team Einarson. "We needed these wins today. It's nice to be going into the playoffs with a good game under our belts tonight and a big win against Tirinzoni. They’ve been a bit of a monkey on our backs this season, so yeah, we're excited for tomorrow. It's been so fun playing in front of a home crowd and they've been awesome. I can't wait for tomorrow."
It's been eight years since Manitoba hosted a Grand Slam of Curling event and 12 years since one with both men's and women's divisions. Birchard was at that event — the 2014 Masters in Selkirk — but as a fan in the stand, as she was still playing in juniors at the time.
Birchard said it's so fun to finally get the opportunity to play in a Grand Slam close to home.
"We've got so many family and friends that have come out and then people that we've known for years and years we haven't seen coming out watching curling. Familiar faces in every corner," Birchard said.
"It's just been awesome. The crowd's been so lively, so positive and cheering for all good shots, but especially loud for ours, so it's pretty nice."
Einarson (3-0-0-2) is off to the quarterfinals and awaits the winner of the tiebreaker between Sweden's Team Isabella Wranå and Japan's Team Satsuki Fujisawa.
Peterson will play South Korea's Team Eun-ji Gim in the other women's quarterfinal matchup.
Despite the loss, the double defending Players' champ Tirinzoni (3-1-0-1) had already secured the No. 1 seed and the other bye to the semifinals.
Team Tirinzoni second Carole Howald said the team feels very pumped for the playoffs.
"We had some tough games, and it wasn't that easy," Howald said. "We had to grind a couple of games. We tried to get a little bit sharper on the ice, but there is always a detail that we had to work on.
"We are just so happy that we are directly through the semifinal. This is a huge step."
CANADIAN MEN MISS THE CUT
Although it's the 25th season of the Grand Slam of Curling, there's still a first time for everything.
Last month's HearingLife Canadian Open marked the first time no Canadian men's teams advanced to the semifinals of a Grand Slam event. The Crown Royal Players' Championship has seen that stat go one step beyond, as no Canadian men's teams qualified for the playoffs, period. Madness, indeed.
While Homan and Einarson clinched on the women's side, Team Matt Dunstone, Team Brad Jacobs and Team Mike McEwen all missed the cut in the men's division.
Jacobs and McEwen were already out before the final day of pool play, with four straight losses each, and went head-to-head in their round-robin finale. One of them had to win, and the Cortina-bound Team Jacobs ended the week on a positive note with a 7-6 decision.
Dunstone was the only hope, but needed a win over Scotland's Team Ross Whyte in the evening draw.
Whyte held the hammer coming home with a one-point lead and didn't need to throw his last with shot rock already secured as he scored the 8-6 victory.
It was the final Grand Slam game for Team Dunstone second E.J. Harnden, who announced last week that he will be stepping back from full-time curling at the end of the season. The crowd gave Harnden a standing ovation after the match.
SCOTTISH TRIPLE THREAT
While Canada is stumbling, Scotland is striving.
Whyte managed to pick up points in every game his team played, wrapping up pool play with a 3-0-2-0 record to qualify.
"It's so tricky out here," Whyte said. "It's really hard actually to get a full win, to be honest. You get to the end game, it's close, people can play for the draw or a full-out win. Thankfully, we've managed to come out with a full win in that one and that takes us out of tiebreakers."
The key moment against Dunstone came in the sixth end. Trailing by one, Whyte hammered home a shot to score three critical points to take the lead for good.
"Yeah, we're very pleased with that," Whyte said. "We've battled hard this week. We've had a couple of losses in the draw shot. You play well, you end up in those situations, you don't win them and all of a sudden, you can be out of the competition. It's a tough field out here, and it feels great to finally make it through. We can now relax tonight and get going again tomorrow."
Highlights from the AMJ Masters men's final in September, where Dunstone edged Whyte for the title, played on the big screen during the game as the two skips, and future Rock League teammates, were caught on camera after, sharing a laugh.
"Yeah, Matt's a good friend of mine. It's always an enjoyable game playing against those boys. Well, sometimes — that final maybe not so much — but it's always a good laugh, and we can always joke about it," Whyte said. "It's in the past, and it was good. It's fine, nice to get one over him this time."
Whyte awaits the winner of the tiebreaker between Team John Shuster of the United States and Scotland's Team Bruce Mouat.
Although Whyte and Mouat have combined for nine consecutive appearances in Grand Slam finals over the past two seasons, it's Team Kyle Waddell that went undefeated at the top of the table, and looks like the team to beat.
Waddell also earned points in all five group games, going 3-2-0-0, including a 7-6 shootout victory over Whyte to kick off Friday's action.
Switzerland's Team Yannick Schwaller holds the second bye to the semifinals, with China's Team Xu Xiaoming and Italy's Team Joël Retornaz set for the quarterfinals.
SCHWALLER SCORES BYE TO SEMIS
The two most recent men's teams to step into the winner's circle at the Grand Slam of Curling faced off in the noon draw as Schwaller took on Mouat.
Schwaller earned the first Grand Slam championship of his career last month at the HearingLife Canadian Open, while Mouat captured back-to-back titles in the fall at the CO-OP Tour Challenge and KIOTI GSOC Tahoe.
The battle between the top two teams in the rankings was also a rematch of last year's World Men's Curling Championship and Players' Championship finals. Both clubs will also clash next month at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
Rematch, but no repeat, as Schwaller defeated Mouat 6-5 in a shootout.
"Fantastic," said Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel, who throws fourth stones for Schwaller. "It's half a win and with those rules, we all know it's a little bit different game for sure, but we come to play well. I think we did so. We played solid. We're happy building up for February and hopefully, if we can have a few more wins here, we'll take it as well for sure."
Schwaller played a bit of gamesmanship and was perfectly happy with Mouat scoring a deuce in the seventh end to take a one-point lead. That gave Schwaller the hammer coming home and in a comfortable position as he just needed to push it to a shootout to secure the semifinal bye.
Schwarz-van Berkel had a couple of "practice draws" in the seventh and eighth ends, leading to the equalizing point, in preparation for the shootout.
Mouat went first, drawing short into the top of the eight-foot circle, and Schwarz-van Berkel placed his shooter right on the button.
"I told the team, I think it's the first time in my life I threw three or four draws in a row in a game. It's crazy," Schwarz-van Berkel said with a laugh. "I think the strategy, the thinking behind it, is a bit confusing, but I think it's exciting for the fans, I guess.
"You have to think a lot. I guess you can see that the teams are thinking quite a bit in the seventh and eighth, so that's exciting."
Schwarz-van Berkel said it's been "so far, so good" this week, coming out of the Christmas break and maintaining the momentum from the HearingLife Canadian Open.
"I think we've played good curling. There's no question about that, so we're happy about it," he said. "The good part is that we also know we can improve many things, so we're very happy."
MCLOVIN IN THE HOUSE
Yes, that was McLovin himself, Superbad actor Christopher Mintz-Plasse, in the Jackpotcity Lounge during the evening draw, along with Paul Walter Hauser, Blake Anderson and Kyle Gallner.
The stars are in town to film Sticks and Stones, a movie based on Shuster's unbelievable 2018 Olympic gold run.
Crowd shots were also filmed after the games at the Southeast Event Centre.
SHOTS OF THE DAY
Leave it to Niklas Edin to show everyone how it's done.
Often imitated, but never duplicated, Edin pulled off his trademark super spinner shot to score two points in the seventh end against Shuster and hold a one-point lead.
Shuster battled back against Edin — hmm, that sounds familiar — as he drew to the button for two points and the 7-6 win to stay in contention.
SATURDAY'S SCHEDULE
Stream all games live on watch.rockchannel.com, with broadcast coverage in Canada on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
Tiebreakers: 11:30 a.m. ET / 10:30 a.m. CT
• Fujisawa vs. Wranå
• Mouat vs. Shuster
Quarterfinals: 3:30 p.m. ET / 2:30 p.m. CT
• Einarson vs. Fujisawa/Wranå tiebreaker winner
• Gim vs. Peterson
• Whyte vs. Mouat/Shuster tiebreaker winner
• Xu vs. Retornaz
Semifinals: 7:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. CT
• Tirinzoni vs. TBD
• Homan vs. TBD
• Waddell vs. TBD
• Y. Schwaller vs. TBD
