STEINBACH, Man. — Baby, let the games begin.
The Crown Royal Players’ Championship, the fifth and final Grand Slam of Curling event of the season, kicks off Tuesday at the Southeast Event Centre. Tickets are available at tickets.southeasteventcentre.ca.
Can’t make it to Steinbach? Watch every game online at watch.rockchannel.com. Broadcast coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ in Canada starts Thursday with Draw 9 at 1 p.m. ET / Noon CT.
Here’s your watch guide for Tuesday’s action.
QUICK LINKS: DRAW SCHEDULE & RESULTS | STANDINGS
MUST-SEE MATCH
Some local flavour will highlight the marquee matchup for Draw 3 (6:30 p.m. CT) as Winnipeg’s Team Dunstone takes on Saskatoon’s Team McEwen.
Skip Mike McEwen hails from Winnipeg and captured his seventh Grand Slam title in his hometown at the Elite 10 in March 2018. The Crown Royal Players’ Championship is the first Grand Slam event in the province since then, and you can bet McEwen is pumped to play in his backyard.
McEwen will also have former teammate B.J. Neufeld back in the fold this week. Kevin Marsh is at home as his wife is expecting a baby.
Neufeld also previously played with Dunstone, making this an intriguing matchup.
For Dunstone, it’ll be his first home-province Grand Slam, and his team will look to turn over a new leaf in the new year after going winless through last month’s HearingLife Canadian Open.
As the quadrennial winds down, this could be the last Grand Slam event for several players. Team Dunstone second E.J. Harnden announced he will be stepping back from full-time competitive curling after this season.
TUESDAY’S SCHEDULE/RESULTS
Draw 1: 12:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. CT
• Waddell 8, Retornaz 7 (shootout): Watch Replay | Linescore
• Xu 8, Casper 3: Watch Replay | Linescore
• Kitazawa 5, Yoshimura 4: Watch Replay | Linescore
• Hasselborg 7, Fujisawa 3: Watch Replay | Linescore
Draw 2: 4 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. CT
• Whyte 6, Jacobs 3: Watch Replay | Linescore
• Y. Schwaller 10, Edin 5: Watch Replay | Linescore
• Gim 12, Einarson 7: Watch Replay | Linescore
• Peterson 7, X. Schwaller 6 (shootout): Watch Replay | Linescore
Draw 3: 7:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. CT
• Dunstone vs. McEwen: Watch Live | Linescore
• Mouat vs. Shuster: Watch Live | Linescore
• Tirinzoni vs. Tabata: Watch Live | Linescore
• Homan vs. Wranå: Watch Live | Linescore
ABOUT THE CROWN ROYAL PLAYERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
The Crown Royal Players’ Championship features 12 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams from around the world that were invited based on World Curling’s year-to-date rankings.
Both men’s and women’s divisions were split into two pools of six teams for round-robin play. The top six teams overall advance to the playoffs, with the best two receiving byes to the semifinals.
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 an additional time at any other point in the game, they will lose the hammer.
There are no extra ends during the round-robin stage. If a game is tied after eight ends, a draw-to-the-button shootout will determine the winner. Teams receive three points for a regulation win, two points for a shootout win, and one point for a shootout loss.
Extra ends will be played during the tiebreakers and playoffs, should a game remain tied after eight ends of play.
