By Jonathan Brazeau
LONDON, Ont. — Better late than never, Switzerland's Team Yannick Schwaller is in the win column at the AMJ Masters.
Schwaller upended Canada's Team Brad Gushue 5-4 in Draw 10 Thursday to earn three pivotal points and remain in contention.
During the preliminary round and tiebreakers, the first Grand Slam of Curling event of the season features a draw to the button to determine the winner instead of extra ends. 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 will return for the playoffs.
Both teams hold 1-2 records with one game to go in preliminary play and intrigue is building in the standings as every point counts.
"Every game is tough. We’ve had two tough ones so far," said Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel, who throws fourth stones for Team Schwaller. "We for sure played a very, very strong second half, I would say, and we could take advantage of it, fortunately. I think we needed the three points. I have no idea, but I guess we did, so we’re still alive. Barely, but still."
Gushue was forced to hit for a single in the first, however, he managed to grab a 2-0 lead in the second when Schwarz-van Berkel’s double attempt rolled up and over the second stone to give up a point.
Facing three Gushue stones in the third, Schwarz-van Berkel drew to the back of the four-foot circle for a single.
Team Schwaller tied it up 2-2 in the fourth end after Schwarz-van Berkel made a double tap to force Gushue to draw to the button that didn’t take a big enough bite to outcount the shot rock.
Gushue already had the pin covered in the fifth and attempted a super spinner to draw around and to the button, but his shooter ran out of juice.
Team Schwaller capitalized in the sixth as Gushue’s hit to set up a force rolled heavy, allowing Schwarz-van Berkel to draw for a deuce and a 4-3 lead.
It was another missed opportunity for Gushue in the seventh, as his draw to the button for two rolled heavy to count just the tying single.
Schwarz-van Berkel cleared the house with his first rock of the eighth end. That gave Gushue nowhere to hide on his last, and Schwarz-van Berkel bopped it on the nose to secure the victory.
The world No. 2 Team Schwaller has had a strong start to the tour season with a title win and two runner-up finishes, but fell behind early in the AMJ Masters with losses to China's Team Xiaoming Xu and Italy's Team Joël Retornaz.
"I think we needed a couple of games, I guess, to adapt to the arena again. This is our first event in an arena this season, and we’re not playing actually in curling clubs anymore this season until the Olympics," said Schwarz van-Berkel, whose team was selected to represent Switzerland in Milan-Cortina.
"Unfortunately, a few ends too many we needed to adapt to the ice — the release, reading the curl and everything — because the arena is a bit different. I think, finally, during the second half we managed to do that, so we could turn this one around."
Meanwhile, Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat defeated Germany’s Team Marc Muskatewitz 7-6 in a shootout.
A day after he came up short of the hogline in a shootout loss to Switzerland’s Team Marco Hösli, Mouat (2-1, six points) bounced back and put it right on the button this time around. Muskatewitz dropped to a 1-2 record (four points).
Italy’s Team Stefania Constantini scored a key first win in the tournament, defeating Switzerland’s Team Xenia Schwaller with a decisive 7-2 victory.
Constantini (1-2, three points) opened up with a 4-0 lead thanks to a deuce in the first, followed by a steal of two in the second as Schwaller (2-1, six points) wrecked her last shot. Another pair of points in the fifth gave Constantini a 5-1 advantage, and the teams alternated singles in six and seven before shaking hands.
Sweden’s Team Isabella Wranå earned a 7-5 win over Canada’s Team Kayla Skrlik. Both teams are at 1-2, with Wranå holding four points and Skrlik having three.
UP NEXT
Round-robin play continues with Draw 11 at 3:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 p.m. PT. Tickets are available at GSOCtickets.com with live online streaming at rockchannel.com plus broadcast coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
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.
