By Ben Hoppe
Going into his final shot of the third game of pool play, it looked like Danny Casper was going to be in a good position to make the AMJ Masters Tier 2 playoffs in St. Thomas, Ont.
He needed to hit-and-stick on a rock in the back of the four-foot circle to win. But his shot floated wide, which forced a shootout with Switzerland’s Team Brunner.
Michael Brunner hit the pin during the shootout, and suddenly Casper’s playoff outlook came into question. The momentum appeared to have shifted in a big way, yet Team Casper brushed it off.
They rebounded by rattling off wins against Team Bryce, Team King and then fellow countrymen Team Shuster in the semifinals. It would have been perfectly reasonable to expect Casper to consider a victory over Shuster an important notch in their belt, but the 24-year-old skip noted how frequently they play Shuster. For them, the focus is on finding ways to pull out wins in big games, which is what good teams do.
After their semifinal win against Shuster, Team Casper made the short drive to the arena in London, Ont., for the final. Yet again, the lights were not too bright nor the moments too big. Casper continued to stay loose by joking around and making lighthearted comments.
“I like interacting with the crowd myself and cracking jokes,” Casper said post-game to The Curling Group's Devin Heroux. “I kind of almost distract myself a little bit and take my mind off of the game for a minute.”
Even when the game against Team Koe started with three blanks, Casper continued to try to apply pressure without the hammer. They were not intimidated by the opponent or the lights. First, they stole a point in the fourth end and then made a great chase on Casper’s hammer stone in the sixth to score two.
With the U.S. Olympic Trials in November coming up quickly, Casper looks primed to make a strong run to represent Team USA.
Casper knows this win showed they were on the right trajectory.
“If we want to get to where we want to be, then it’s a good start winning here,” he said.
DROPKIN STRUGGLES IN TIER 1
Looking at the record alone, Team Dropkin’s first Grand Slam of the season was certainly not what they hoped for. The reigning U.S. champions dropped all four games in the AMJ Masters Tier 1, losing to Team Dunstone, Team McEwen, Team Ramsfjell and Team Retornaz.
Three of the four games came down to the last shot, with their crossover loss to Retornaz coming in a shootout.
In the lone blowout loss — a 7-1 rout against McEwen — both teams struggled with ice conditions thanks to a humid September day. McEwen was able to adjust to the ice more quickly, and the Americans were unable to convert on any big shots to get back into the game.
PETERSON EMBRACES SHOOTOUT RULES
The replacement of extra ends with a shootout was a major focus of the pool play rounds across both the Tier 1 and Tier 2 events. No team utilized the rule more than Tabitha Peterson, being all tied up after eight ends in two of the four pool play games and winning both draws.
They seemed to enjoy it enough to bring the rule into play for their tiebreaker rematch with South Korea’s Team Kang. They beat Kang by a shootout for the second time in the event, this time with Peterson hitting the pin on her draw, to secure their spot in the playoffs.
Team Strouse also excelled in shootouts, with both wins coming in the substitute for an extra frame. The two shootout wins accounted for only two points apiece in the standings, which left them on the outside of the playoff picture.
SHUSTER'S STRONG START THWARTED BY CASPER IN SEMIS
Team Shuster were chugging away with yet another good showing in an international event.
They started the event with a loss to Team McDonald in their first game but bounced back strong. Their trademark aggressive playstyle applied constant pressure, and they were regularly putting crooked numbers on the scoreboard. This showed itself in the quarterfinal against Team Yamaguchi when they put up seven points in the first four ends to force handshakes and secure a matchup with Team Casper.
The matchup against Casper deviated, though, with a low-scoring game between the two American teams. Shuster's run ended after yielding steals of one in back-to-back ends to close out the game.
