News National

NORTH BAY, Ont. — Championship Sunday is now set for the Boost National as Team Gushue and Team Edin will face off in the men’s final while Team Einarson and Team Tirinzoni meet for the women’s title at Memorial Gardens.

Skip Brad Gushue and his Canadian crew from St. John’s, N.L., were the first to advance as they trumped Team Dropkin from the United States 11-0 in only five ends.

Gushue scored a deuce to start and then stole away the game swiping four in the second, one in the third plus pairs of points in the fourth and fifth ends to log off from the night shift early.

The 13-time Grand Slam champion Gushue also reached the final during the previous time Memorial Gardens hosted an event in the series finishing runner-up to fellow Canadian skip Matt Dunstone in the 2019 Masters.

It was almost a rematch, however, Dunstone’s new Winnipeg team was unable to upend Niklas Edin in an extra end. The reigning Olympic and world men’s champions from Sweden prevailed 4-3 to secure their spot.

Both Edin and Gushue enter the final with undefeated 6-0 records in the tournament.

Gushue ended last season winning the Kioti Tractor Champions Cup as did Kerri Einarson, whose Canadian club from Gimli, Man., has picked up where they left off, too.

Einarson (6-1) avenged an earlier defeat to Japan’s Team Fujisawa by winning 8-5 in their semifinal showdown. The four-time Grand Slam champion Einarson fell to Fujisawa 7-6 during the group stage due to a steal in the final frame.

Three-time reigning world women’s champion Silvana Tirinzoni (6-0) and her Swiss squad eliminated Canada’s Team Lawes 7-5 to advance.

Championship Sunday begins with the women’s final at 11 a.m. ET on Sportsnet ONE and Sportsnet 360 followed by the men’s final at 3 p.m. ET on Sportsnet 360. Stream both games online via Sportsnet NOW (Canada) or Yare (international).

NOTES

The Boost National is the first of six events on the 2022-23 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling calendar and features 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world. … A combined $300,000 purse, split equally between the men’s and women’s divisions, is on the line. The winning teams receive $35,000 and invitations to the season-ending Kioti Tractor Champions Cup. … Points are also up for grabs in the race for the Pinty’s Cup, which is awarded to the 2022-23 season champions with a $75,000 bonus for the winning teams.