Perhaps we are seeing the next generation of curling stars blossoming in front of our eyes after some major upsets Wednesday at the CO-OP Tour Challenge in Nisku, Alta.
Canadian curling legends Rachel Homan and Brad Gushue lost their respective matches on Wednesday versus Italy’s Team Stefania Constantini and Canada’s Team Rylan Kleiter.
While both Canadian powerhouse teams didn’t have their worst outings, it was the young talent that came through with statement wins.
Draw 5
Fujisawa 6, Skrlik 5
X. Schwaller 5, Yoshimura 4
Waddell 9, Dropkin 2
Edin 5, Carruthers 4
Draw 6
Hasselborg 6, Black 4
Lawes 7, Gim 4
Mouat 7, Muskatewitz 3
Dunstone 7, Hoesli 2
Draw 7
Tirinzoni 9, Ha 2
Wrana 8, Kim 5
Retornaz 4, Koe 2
Kleiter 6, Gushue 5
Draw 8
Tabata 7, Einarson 3
Constantini 8, Homan 4
Epping 6, Whyte 1
Y.Schwaller 7, McEwen 6
On both the women’s and men’s sides, four undefeated teams have looked great to start the week. For the women, it’s Switzerland’s Team Silvana Tirinzoni, Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa, Sweden’s Team Anna Hasselborg and Constantini. The perfect teams on the men’s side are Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat, Canada’s Team John Epping, Sweden’s Team Niklas Edin and Canada’s Team Matt Dunstone.
It’s safe to say Homan brings the best out of any team she plays, but especially Constantini.
After going back and forth for the first seven ends, Homan took the hammer into the eighth end trailing 5-4, a spot she wanted after choosing to use her one blank in the seventh end.
But in the eighth end, Constantini and her squad raised their game to another level, leaving Homan with nothing to shoot at with her final rock but a near-impossible angle runback.
Although everyone is accustomed to seeing Homan make those types of shots, she couldn’t come up with this one, dropping the game 8-4 for her first Slam loss of the season.
John Epping needs some more respect for being an elite shot maker.
Against Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte, the Canadian skip was guaranteed one point in the first end, but wanted two. With no easy draw path, the only option was to put the broom outside the rings and draw through a really tight, staggered port while trying to get enough curl to reach the four foot.
Sure enough, Epping made the perfect draw to earn his deuce.
On Tuesday, Whyte’s teammate Robin Brydone made a shot that swung the momentum in Whyte’s favour. On Wednesday, Whyte did the complete opposite.
Whyte needed just a nose tapback with his final shot in the second end versus Epping to score three points with two of his own in the four foot along with Epping’s lone rock.
However, the funk Brydone seemed to break them out of Tuesday came back for the skip, as he played tight to his stone in the top four and wrecked, giving up a steal of one.
That shot would set up a rough night for Whyte, as he would go on to give up steals in the third and fourth ends before shaking hands after five ends and losing 6-1.
Ahh, the sweeping we can do when we’re young, or at least the sweeping Kleiter’s lead Trevor Johnson can do when he’s young.
With Kleiter trailing 4-3 in the sixth end versus Gushue and Gushue sitting one partially buried behind two guards, there was no room for error with Kleiter’s first stone.
Kleiter, however, wanted to test that.
Trying a soft-weight takeout, Kleiter released the rock inside, making Johnson work extremely hard to keep it from wrecking on the guards. Sweeping the length of the ice, Johnson was able to keep the line straight and help make the takeout, setting Kleiter up to score two as he would go on to earn a massive Tier 1 victory over Gushue.
Despite Mouat earning a 5-4 win on Tuesday versus Team Canada’s Kevin Koe, he didn’t have the best game, which led to the close score.
Wednesday was a different story for the world No. 1.
Against Germany’s Team Marc Muskatewitz, Mouat looked like a man with something to prove, especially in the first end. After Muskatewitz played a strong end and looked to have forced Mouat to take his single, the Scottish star had other ideas.
Mouat elected to try to get two points, attempting a double angle runback into Muskatewitz’s stone sitting on the edge of the top four.
It’s a shot that the average curler could only dream of making. But Mouat made the shot look easy to grab his deuce and went on to win 8-3.
Draw 10, 11, 12 go Thursday on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
McEwen vs. Kleiter: 2 p.m. ET/ 11 a.m. PT
Einarson vs. Skrlik: 6 p.m. ET/ 3 p.m. PT
Homan vs. Wrana: 10 p.m. ET/ 7 p.m. PT
