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Kerri Einarson and Jason Gunnlaugson are no strangers to the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling but with an ultra-competitive tour neither could be quite sure when they would return to the top ranks.

The Tour Challenge Tier 2 proved to be their golden tickets with Einarson and Gunnlaugson skipping their respective Winnipeg-based teams to the titles earlier this month in Regina. Einarson and Gunnlaugson received $10,000 each and spots to the next Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event, the Masters, taking place Oct. 24-29 in Lloydminster, Sask., with airfare and accommodations provided.

Einarson had been down the Tier 2 road before and emerged victorious, winning the inaugural event in 2015 to earn her team’s first title together. Their stellar campaign continued that season capturing their first provincial title at the Manitoba Scotties. It was a tough act to follow, the team slipped in 2016-17 and qualified for the playoffs in just two of their 11 tournaments. Einarson was ranked as high as 10th on the World Curling Tour, but not even her first major title win at the Boost National could stop her squad from sliding down to No. 22 to start 2017-18.

Back to the Tier 2 and a chance for redemption.

“Last year we had a real struggle of a year, which was unfortunate because I knew we were better than that,” Einarson said. “We won a Slam and still weren’t in the Slams, so that’s how bad it was. It feels great to be back in them and hopefully, we can do really well in Lloydminster.”

Meanwhile, Gunnlaugson made his Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling debut almost a decade ago playing third for Reid Carruthers, but had bounced around from skipping his own squad, to heading overseas and playing in Russia, to coming back to Canada and joining Jim Cotter’s crew in B.C., to returning to Manitoba and finally skipping once again.

Third Alex Forrest, second Ian McMillan and lead Connor Njegovan had a respectable tour season in 2016-17 with Matt Dunstone working their way up to 19th in the world. When their skip jumped ship to Steve Laycock’s squad, that opened the door for Gunnlaugson to take the wheel this season.

“We’ve been trying really hard,” Gunnlaugson said. “I know these guys have been battling for three years and slowly moving up the ranks. To join them and now get to play at the elite level at the Slam, that’s what we’re all about. We’re excited.”

Einarson and Gunnlaugson weren’t the only ones looking to re-enter the top ranks as the Tier 2 division featured the likes of two-time world champion Binia Feltscher, world silver medallist Anna Sidorova and 2016 Scotties Tournament of Hearts winner Chelsea Carey among others.

The crew of Einarson, third Selena Kaatz, second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish came out strong topping their round-robin pool with a 3-1 record and drawing sharp to lock down the top seed for the playoffs.

Einarson went against convention in the quarterfinals and opted to choose rock colour over hammer versus Robyn Silvernagle. It appeared to backfire at first with Silvernagle, from North Battleford, Sask., scoring a deuce in the second and leading 3-1 at the break, but Einarson took control in the second half with pairs of points in five and seven and a steal in eight to close out a 6-4 set.

That set up a semifinal showdown against Feltscher, but it was all Einarson scoring two in the second, stealing a pair in three and a whopping five points in the fourth during the 9-1 hammering. The Calgary native Carey also advanced to the final in a rout crushing reigning U.S. champ Jamie Sinclair 11-3.

Einarson stole in the second to strike the scoreboard first and maintained the one-point lead to stay up 2-1 at the break. Carey scored a deuce in the fifth to pull ahead, but the lead was short-lived as Einarson made a sizzling double raise to score three in the sixth.

Kerri Einarson makes the double raise to score 3 in the 6th & take a 5-3 lead in the Tier 2 final! #GSOC #TourChallenge #curling pic.twitter.com/x3QbJ1Whyu

— Grand Slam Curling (@grandslamcurl) September 10, 2017

“The double run was pretty much a game-changer,” Einarson said. “If I would have missed that we would probably have only been down two but it was pretty straight to make it. That’s one of my signature shots and I was more than happy. The girls were on board with me playing it and trusted my call.”

Carey couldn’t come back from that one, limited to just a single in seven and had nowhere to hide in eight with Einarson making an open hit to tack on two more points and win 7-4.

“It feels pretty awesome, even better than the first time just because to win Tier 2 again, that’s tough,” Einarson said. “We really came out firing right from the start. We had one bad game and that was it. We almost pinned all of our draws, that was our best draw-to-the-button, so I knew it was going to go well. It was a great week.”

Gunnlaugson also went 3-1 through round-robin play to reach the playoffs and took the second seed thanks to a superior shootout score.

The playoffs were a rocky road for Gunnlaugson though. He stole one in the eighth end to escape with a 6-5 win over Saskatoon’s Josh Heidt in the quarterfinals and counted a couple in the final frame to lift his team to a 7-6 victory against Carl deConinck Smith of Rosetown, Sask., during the semis.

Meanwhile, fellow Winnipegger William Lyburn — one of the Original 18 skips in the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling — reached the final in a wild one against Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher. It looked like Lyburn was on the ropes after Bottcher stole four points in the fifth end to take a commanding 6-2 lead. Lyburn cut the deficit in half with a deuce in six and stole singles in three consecutive ends to complete the miraculous 7-6 come-from-behind victory in an extra frame.

Gunnlaugson topped Lyburn 6-1 during the round robin, but the final was a grind between the former teammates with the title and Masters berth on the line.

Gunnlaugson was up by two at the break until Lyburn hit a double takeout and rolled in scoring four in the fifth to take a 6-4 lead. Just when it seemed like Lyburn had grabbed ahold of the game, Gunnlaugson clawed right back with one of his patented runbacks to count three in the sixth and pull back ahead by one.

Lyburn tied it in seven and Gunnlaugson drew for the 8-7 win in eight with McMillan and Njegovan sweeping furiously and Forrest jumping up to help drag the rock in.

“It was good except it wasn’t the best throw,” Gunnlaugson said. “It was pretty much all Ian and Connor sweeping and they made it. It wasn’t the prettiest throw but it’s fun to win like that.”

Good was good enough to win the title and now Gunnlaugson and Einarson will ply their trade among the world’s best at the Masters.