LONDON, Ont. — Joël Retornaz is saving this one in the memory bank.
Retornaz and his team from Italy defeated Brad Gushue's Canadian club 6-2 Tuesday during the opening day of action in the AMJ Masters. It was Gushue's first game of the 2025-26 campaign and his first game since announcing that he will retire from competitive curling at the end of the season.
Retornaz and Gushue have been battling on the ice ever since they first met during round-robin play in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Although Gushue went on to capture Olympic gold, the home side came out on top that time, and Retornaz possibly bookended their storied history against each other with another victory.
"There’s a little bit more excitement because you never know, I hope not, but it might be my last game against Brad and (third) Mark (Nichols) and of course the team," Retornaz said. "Well, I don’t know what the other players are doing, but since Brad announced his retirement at the end of the season, I take every single opportunity to try to have a good, fair battle on the ice and try to play my best curling. We’ve played for so many years together, so I hope not, but this might be my last game against him. It’s a good memory to keep, a nice win like tonight."
Coincidentally, this season's Winter Olympics will also take place in Italy. Retornaz has his spot assured for Milan-Cortina, while Gushue will need to win the Canadian Olympic curling trials in November to earn the right to wear the Maple Leaf again. Oddly enough, the trials are taking place once more in Halifax, where Gushue upset a stacked field 20 years ago.
Gushue has pre-qualified for the Montana's Brier as well, with the Canadian men's curling championship taking place in his hometown of St. John's, N.L.
While the matchup was Gushue's first of the season, the AMJ Masters is already the fourth tournament for Retornaz, who claimed the Hogged Rock KW Fall Classic presented by Runback Brewing men's title this past weekend in Waterloo, Ont., posting a perfect 7-0 record in the event.
"Curling is often about momentum. I can’t hide and say that we don’t have good momentum at the moment because we do have good momentum," said Retornaz, who has earned four Grand Slam of Curling titles, including two at the Masters. "We had a good win last weekend, and we really wanted to bring the same performance, the same attitude, the same team spirit we had last week.
"We wanted to bring it to the Slam ice, and I think we did tonight. We had a good performance against a very strong team, and we are happy to start off the Slam competition with a win."
Gushue opened with the hammer but was forced to draw for a single in the third end after Retornaz made a great double takeout to sit two counters.
The tables were turned in the fourth end as Retornaz then had to hit for just one point to tie it up 1-1 heading into the break.
The 15-time Grand Slam men's champion Gushue looked to draw and wrap his shooter around to score a deuce in the fifth, however, it didn't curl in enough, and he scored only the single.
Retornaz jumped into the lead in the sixth with a tap for two points and extended his lead to 4-2 in the seventh as Gushue conceded a point to keep the hammer for the final frame.
Gushue attempted to hit off one of his guards to roll in and remove Retornaz's rocks to force a shootout. The shooter missed the mark, and Retornaz added two more points to his tally.
DRAW 4 RESULTS
Matt Dunstone tapped to score three in the eighth end to defeat Team Korey Dropkin of the United States 6-4.
In women's play, Anna Hasselborg nailed a runback with her last shot to count three points and lift her Swedish squad to a 5-2 victory over Italy's Team Stefania Constantini.
Team Rachel Homan defeated Team Kayla Skrlik 7-4 in a clash of Canadian clubs. Trailing 2-1, the 17-time Grand Slam women's champ Homan took control by scoring deuces in the fourth, sixth and eighth ends while limiting Skrlik to lonely single points in the fifth and seventh.
UP NEXT
Round-robin play resumes with Draw 5 Wednesday at 8 a.m. ET / 5 a.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 is the first Grand Slam of Curling event of the season, featuring 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.
There are no extra ends during preliminary play and any tiebreakers. If a game is tied after eight ends, a draw-to-the-button shootout will determine the winner. Extra ends return for the playoff rounds.
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.
