News Masters

NORTH BAY, Ont. — It had been more a month since Brendan Bottcher’s team last played a game together but they showed no signs of rust during the opening draw of the Masters.

Bottcher’s Edmonton-based crew cruised past Winnipeg’s Team Mike McEwen 11-4 in only five ends Tuesday night to kick off the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season at North Bay Memorial Gardens.

Bottcher, third Darren Moulding, second Bradley Thiessen and lead Karrick Martin have only played a handful of games as a foursome this season. Their 2019-20 campaign started in mid-September at the Shorty Jenkins Classic, although Thiessen had to head home a couple of games early and they’ve been idle since.

“I think we’ve felt really comfortable at the Slams, obviously at the end of last year,” said Bottcher, who won the final three Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling men’s titles last season. “The start of this year has been weird for us to say the least. We’ve had a series of unfortunate events, so it’s not too often you start your season sort of Oct. 22. But it is what it is and certainly had lots of time to practise and we came out and played really well, so I’m proud the guys for that.”  

They were supposed to compete in the Canad Inns Men’s Classic earlier this month, but they never even made it to Portage la Prairie due to the severe Manitoba snowstorm. The blizzard shut down the main roads and Team Bottcher was stuck in Winnipeg with no chance to reach the spiel that was eventually cancelled after the power went out and the ice in the club melted.

“It was crazy for sure,” Bottcher said. “For the first day we were feeling like we were probably the unlucky ones because we were stuck in Winnipeg, everyone was in Portage and we were pretty sure we were going to have to default our games because we couldn’t get there. About 24 hours in, we realized that OK we’re the lucky ones.

“We’re in a hotel with food, power, a hot tub and we can hang out for a day and I was back home for supper on Saturday night. As far as the Thanksgiving weekend goes, that was at least a positive.”  

Bottcher, who threw a sharp 98 percent, opened with the hammer and set the tone early scoring three in the first frame.

“We played a great first end and had them chasing the whole end,” Bottcher said. “I’m not sure we really deserved three but definitely take it, get your feet under you in sort of your first competitive game of the season together and get comfortable from there.” 

The pressure was on in the second end with Bottcher sitting three. McEwen was forced to attempt a tricky triple, but he couldn’t pull off and conceded a pair of points.

McEwen sat shot rock in the third and had an opportunity to draw for a deuce but clipped a guard with his last on the way by and had to settle for a single.

Things only got worse for Team McEwen. Bottcher piled his rocks into the house during the fourth end and McEwen wrecked on a guard again leading to a draw for six and an 11-1 gap.

“That’s a bit of a few things,” Bottcher said regarding how he was able to pull off a six-ender. “In five-rock rule curling, we’re already up a few so they’re going really hard and just nature of five-rock rule curling, we weren’t going to start whacking a whole bunch of guards, so we just kept hitting around through the middle, got one miss and that was that.”  

McEwen managed to pull off a nifty runback to score three in the fifth end, however, it was a case of too little, too late leading to super early handshakes.

Elsewhere in Draw 1, Regina’s Team Matt Dunstone clipped Team Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., 5-4.

Down by one, Dunstone pulled ahead with a deuce in five followed by a single steal in six to lead 4-2. The 11-time Grand Slam champion Gushue tied it up by counting a couple in seven. Dunstone didn’t need to make a heroic final throw in the eighth end, however, as he already sat shot rock after his first skip stone and Gushue overthrew his last.

“I think this is the first time as a team we’ve started a Slam 1-0,” Dunstone said. “That was kind of one of our main focuses going into this year. It’s one of the things that we wanted to do, so mission accomplished and on to the next one. … There are no easy games out there, so we’ve got to keep the pedal down.”  

In women’s play, Ottawa’s Team Rachel Homan topped Team Sayaka Yoshimura of Japan 10-3.

Team Jennifer Jones defeated Team Theresa Cannon 7-4 in an all-Winnipeg battle. Jones captured the world championship in this very rink in 2018.

Reigning world champions Team Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland edged Edmonton’s Team Kesley Rocque 5-4 in an extra end.

The Masters resumes Wednesday at 8 a.m. ET. Broadcast coverage begins Thursday at Noon ET on Sportsnet with online streaming available via Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).

NOTES: The Masters is the first of six Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling events on the season and one of four majors in the series. … The total prize purse is $300,000 and is split evenly between the men’s and women’s divisions. Winners receive the lion’s share plus berths towards the season-ending Humpty’s Champions Cup taking place April 29 to May 3, 2020, in Olds, Alta. … Also up for grabs at the Masters are Pinty’s Cup bonus points. The leaders following the conclusion of the Players’ Championship in April will capture the Pinty’s Cup with additional prize money awarded.