News Players' Championship

TORONTO — How the turntables: Kerri Einarson’s rough start to the Princess Auto Players’ Championship is so far gone it’s no longer even in her rear-view mirror.

After getting out to a 0-2 record, including a 13-0 loss to Clancy Grandy, Einarson has flipped the script with three straight wins in the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling major tournament.

Einarson, from Gimli, Man., defeated Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones 6-4 to finish pool play Friday afternoon at Mattamy Athletic Centre.

Team Einarson (3-2) also hold a great shootout score and are in good standing with the playoffs on the horizon. Two more round-robin draws are on tap before the playoff picture can take full shape.

“It’s awesome,” Team Einarson second Shannon Birchard said. “We definitely picked ourselves up after a really rough start to the event. I think we just recognized that we came in maybe a little rusty and a little tired. We just decided to let everything go, have lots of fun at this event and it’s really turned around for us.”

Einarson opened with the hammer after winning the draw-to-the-button shootout and capitalized after Jones jammed a tricky triple takeout in the second end to tap for three crucial points.

“Against top teams like Jenn, it’s always key to score the first multiple,” Birchard said. “It just puts you in a really good position through the rest of the game. Getting hammer is super important and getting that multiple score just gave us a leg-up to start the game.”

That put Jones (1-4) in chase mode to not only stay in the game but also in contention. Her team closed the gap though and a single steal in the seventh end tied it 4-4.

Einarson held the hammer coming home though and made no mistake on a double takeout for two points in the final frame.

Birchard praise “superstar” lead Briane Harris, who is playing while pregnant.

“It’s crazy, you’d hardly know that she’s pregnant just by how she’s playing out there,” Birchard said. “She’s phenomenal, she made a runback today and it’s pretty impressive what she’s doing, especially the sweeping aspect. Every game that we get with her is pretty special and she’s just doing amazing out there.”

Team Einarson have reached a record six consecutive Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling women’s finals with their incredible streak starting right here one year ago. They won back-to-back Princess Auto Players’ Championship titles in 2019 and 2021 but fell short of the three-peat losing to Anna Hasselborg.

Elsewhere, Casey Scheidegger’s team (1-3) from Lethbridge, Alta., earned a 6-5 win over Ottawa’s Rachel Homan (2-2) to remain in the mix. Scheidegger and second Jessie Haughian are both away on maternity leave with Chelsea Carey and Jamie Sinclair subbing in.

Brad Gushue (4-1) of St. John’s, N.L., is through to the playoffs on the men’s side following a 9-3 win over Korey Dropkin (0-5) from the United States.

It’s Team Gushue second E.J. Harnden’s 40th birthday, and he was happy one of his wishes came true.

“It feels really good,” he said. “I’m getting used to spending my birthday here in Toronto at the Players’ Championship, so any time we can get a win at the same time, that’s obviously extra special. We had a lot of fun out there today and hopefully, that puts us in a good position to potentially get a bye to the semifinals.

“A really good game today and I’m looking forward to having a little bit of fun tonight, enjoy that we’re going to the Jays game and celebrate my 40th birthday.”

Team Gushue have played quite well this week as they arrived straight from the world championship in Ottawa where they earned silver medals on Sunday. Even their lone loss to Brendan Bottcher on Thursday night was still pretty close.

“We weren’t far off,” Harnden said about the 5-4 defeat. “They played well, it was just a few little millimetres here and there, so it was still a good game. I thought we came out today with a really good, positive mindset, and a lot of good energy and we were sharp. It was nice to come off of a loss and bring that, especially with how gruelling the last number of weeks have been.”

“I think we’re utilizing some of the momentum that we have from the worlds and then we’re just having fun because it’s been a long season,” he added. “We’ve had a long month and a bit now with the Brier right into the worlds and into here, so we’re enjoying ourselves and we’re racking up some wins to go along with it. It’s nice.”

Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller (4-1) also clinched a spot after defeating Reid Carruthers of Winnipeg 7-5.

Carruthers (1-4) had already been eliminated and was playing as a trio this week with third Brad Jacobs and second Derek Samagalski as lead Connor Njegovan (paternity leave) was away.

UP NEXT

Round-robin play continues at 3:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 p.m. PT with broadcast coverage on Sportsnet, Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).

Tickets are available at the box office and online at Ticketmaster.ca.

The best six teams overall qualify for Saturday’s playoffs with the top two receiving byes to the semifinals. Both finals are scheduled for Sunday.

NOTES: The Princess Auto Players’ Championship features 12 of the top men’s teams and 12 of the top women’s teams from around the world based on the World Curling Federation’s year-to-date world team rankings. … The Pinty’s Cup will also be awarded to the season champions in the series during the event.