News Players' Championship

TORONTO — John Epping’s team is even exceeding his expectations in their first season together.

The veteran Toronto-based skip was a free agent last summer and linked up with third Jake Horgan, second Tanner Horgan and lead Ian McMillan. Although they started No. 34 in the world rankings — and weren’t even in the HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 2 event in October — they chipped away at the standings, winning five events on tour, to crack the top 10.

Epping made his return to the Grand Slam of Curling circuit in January at the WFG Masters and earned an invitation to the season-ending AMJ Players’ Championship, taking place this week at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.

“Everything is just gravy and bonus,” Epping said after Monday’s practice. “I think the expectation was to play our way into the Slams, hopefully, by next season, and to do that early on is amazing.

“I keep forgetting that you show up today, and I’ve been to many of these (but) a couple of them haven’t, and I think that’s just massive. Every big event that we can play in, and the bigger crowds we can play in front of, I think, is just overall really good for this team going forward.”

Team Epping got out to a good start at the AMJ Players’ Championship with an 8-1 victory over Team Brad Jacobs during Tuesday’s opening draw.

Epping broke a 1-1 tie in the fourth end with a come-around tap to score a deuce. Jacobs, fresh from earning bronze Sunday at the World Men’s Curling Championship, attempted an angle raise in the fifth that did not go as planned, resulting in a single steal.

It was early handshakes after Jacobs gave up a steal of four in the sixth. With Epping sitting a cluster of stones in the four-foot circle, Jacobs tried another runback that missed the mark.

Tyler Tardi and Connor Njegovan are filling in this week on the Calgary-based Team Jacobs. Second Brett Gallant is resting and recovering to prepare for the upcoming World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship and lead Ben Hebert is injured.

The 42-year-old Epping has won three Grand Slam of Curling titles as a skip, capturing his first at the Players’ Championship in 2012. His club entered the event as the eighth seed in an eight-team field but overcame the odds, eliminating then-reigning Olympic champion Kevin Martin in the semifinals and then-reigning world champ Glenn Howard in the final to capture the title.

While it may seem like ages ago for Epping, that experience helps fuel his team, ranked 10th in this year’s 12-team field.

“I always say to the guys, you can’t buy experience,” said Epping, whose team also represented Northern Ontario in this year’s Montana’s Brier. “It’s one thing you can’t purchase in life, and I think it goes a long way. I think they bank on that with me, and for me, it’s just exciting to live through them getting to play in their first Players’ Championship, a bunch of wins this year. There’s just a lot of firsts for them and for me, that’s really exciting.

“It’s satisfying knowing that maybe they made a good decision bringing me in. I just couldn’t be happier with getting to share these types of experiences with them. It’s a lot of fun for me.”

It’s not just the AMJ Players’ Championship for Epping, it’s the AMJ Players’ Championship in Toronto at the historic venue formerly known as Maple Leaf Gardens. Epping is expecting his team will have lots of friends and family members in the stands along with supporters from the various clubs they’re affiliated with in the Greater Toronto Area.

Major tournaments tend to move around locations, however, the AMJ Players’ Championship found a home at the Mattamy Athletic Centre as this year marks the 10th time the arena has hosted the event since 2013. With the AMJ Players’ Championship on the move next season to Steinbach, Man., Epping said it will be “even extra big” having that support here this week.

Epping is also looking forward to playing during the Friday evening draw as it’s Pride Night at the AMJ Players’ Championship.

“Having a Pride Night on Friday, I know the place will be packed and just to have the community here, it means a lot,” said Epping, who came out publicly in 2017 and is one of the few openly gay male athletes in major North American sports. “We know that they’ll be supporting us on Friday night.”

Elsewhere in the opening draw, Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte also scored a big win to start the tournament, downing Team Korey Dropkin of the United States 11-1.

Whyte, who captured a first career Grand Slam title at the WFG Masters, was already ahead 5-1 when Dropkin came up short of the house on his draw in the fifth end to give up a game-ending steal of six points.

In women’s play, Ottawa’s Team Rachel Homan defeated Team Xenia Schwaller of Switzerland 7-5 and South Korea’s Team Seung-youn Ha beat Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa 7-5.

Homan and Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat faced off in a charity skins game between the two reigning world champions Monday night at the Rio Mare Battle of the Sexes presented by The Curling Group. Mouat won $10,000 for Charlie Boy’s Cancer Fundraiser with Homan earning $2,000 for the Sandra Schmirler Foundation. A portion of ticket sales from the sold-out event will also be donated to their charities.

UP NEXT

Round-robin play continues with Draw 2 at 3 p.m. ET / noon PT. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.ca.

Live streaming of every game is available in free preview via HomeTeam.

Broadcast coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ begins Thursday at 11:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. PT.

NOTES

The AMJ Players’ Championship is the fifth and final Grand Slam of Curling event of the season, featuring the top 12 men’s teams and top 12 women’s teams from around the world. … Round-robin play runs through to Friday evening. Six teams qualify for the playoffs in both divisions with the top two receiving byes to the semifinals. … If necessary, one tiebreaker draw is slated for Saturday morning. … The quarterfinals and semifinals are scheduled for Saturday. Both finals on tap Sunday.