Einarson, Bottcher emerge as early front-runners at Humpty’s Champions Cup
Kerri Einarson is off to a solid start at the Humpty’s Champions Cup in her quest to win a third consecutive title in the bubble at Calgary’s WinSport Arena.
Team Einarson successfully defended the Scotties Tournament of Hearts title in February to kick off the hub city run and the skip added another national title last month with Brad Gushue at the Canadian mixed doubles championship.
Einarson and her team from Gimli, Man., picked up a pair of wins Thursday to begin the first of two Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling events defeating Ottawa’s Team Rachel Homan 6-3 in the morning and trumping Team Tabitha Peterson 9-2 in the evening.
“It’s so nice to be back on the ice,” Einarson said. “It’s my happy place out there just thinking about curling, having some laughs and enjoying it out there. With everything going on nowadays it can be very depressing, so just to be back doing what we love to do is awesome.”
Humpty’s Champions Cup: Scores and standings | Draw schedule | Broadcast schedule
Einarson pulled off a runback double takeout to score four points in the eighth end to defeat Homan and counted an identical score to start against Peterson (0-1). Third Val Sweeting gave credit to second Shannon Birchard and lead Briane Meilleur for sweeping in the draw on the latter.
“We had to be on top of the path that game and they didn’t let up,” Sweeting said. “We had a lot of good sweeps out there. The girls are working hard and making a lot of shots for us out there. It’s exciting.”
A steal of two in the second made it a 6-0 set. Peterson broke the shutout with a single in three, but Einarson responded with a deuce in four and forced the Americans to another lone point in five. Einarson added another point in six to finish the night off early.
“It was a good day at the office,” Sweeting said. “We didn’t have any practice ice in between events but I thought we shook the rust off pretty quick. Kerri made a pistol there to win the first game. It was a good battle back and forth.
“In this game, we felt pretty good. There were a couple scary moments. I think we got a little fortunate on a couple of hers but I think it was a good battle out there. It felt a little closer than the scoreboard showed but we had to be sharp to keep our rocks in good spots and we felt we did that. It feels good so far.”
The game was also a preview for the upcoming world women’s championship set to take place after the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling events in the bubble although Team Einarson are focusing on the Humpty’s Champions Cup for now.
“We’re trying not to put too much attention on (the women’s worlds),” Sweeting said. “We’re just trying to do one event at a time, one game at a time otherwise I think we’ll be burnt out by the time we get to worlds. They hadn’t played yet either, so we had a bit of an advantage but they’re a really good team and we know that we’ll have to be strong when we play them again.”
Elsewhere Thursday night, Canadian champions Team Brendan Bottcher of Edmonton climbed to the top of the men’s table at 2-0 with a decisive 9-2 thumping in five ends over Toronto’s Team John Epping (1-1).
Bottcher took two in the first and rode the steal train swiping three in the second and one in the third. Epping recovered and got on the board with a deuce in four but opted to end things early after Bottcher tacked three more points on the board in five.
Team Bottcher were victorious 6-4 in the morning over Switzerland’s Team Yannick Schwaller, who rebounded and doubled up on Calgary’s Team Kevin Koe 6-3. Both Schwaller and Koe are level with 1-1 records.
World champions Team Niklas Edin of Sweden bounced back from a 6-2 loss to Koe in the morning with a huge 7-1 victory over Team Jason Gunnlaugson of Morris, Man. Edin, who captured a record third consecutive world title and fifth overall Sunday, drew for a three count in the first and rolled away with single steals in three consecutive ends. Gunnlaugson (0-2) scored his single in five and Edin matched with one more point in six.
The Humpty’s Champions Cup is the first of back-to-back Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling events featuring 12 of the top men’s teams and 12 of the top women’s teams from around the world. The series is testing a new rule at the Humpty’s Champions Cup called the no tick zone. A rock touching the centre line, in the free guard zone, may not be moved off the centre line by the opposing team until the sixth rock of the end.
Round-robin play resumes Friday at 10 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. local time. Broadcast coverage picks up again at 2 p.m. ET / Noon local time on Sportsnet with online streaming at Sportsnet Now (Canada) and Yare (international).
Pool play runs through to Saturday with quarterfinals and semifinals on Sunday and both finals set for Monday. The Princess Auto Players’ Championship begins Tuesday.
