News Champions Cup

SHERWOOD PARK, Alta. — Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., picked up where he left off in the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling. 

Gushue, who has won the past two event titles, kicked off the inaugural Humpty’s Champions Cup with a 7-6 victory over Scotland’s Bruce Mouat on Tuesday night to extend his winning streak in the series to 15 games.

Teams had to win a high-profile event over the course of the season in order to receive an invitation to the Humpty’s Champions Cup. Gushue said it’s great to see teams that wouldn’t play in the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling based on Order of Merit points such as the reigning world junior champion Mouat.

“I think getting some new people an opportunity here to play on great ice and in front of a great crowd and eventually on TV as we get closer to the weekend is good,” he said. “It could be an opportunity for guys like these or any other team like Mick Lizmore or some of the teams people probably haven’t heard of as much. They have a good week here and get some points and it could help them get into the Slams next year. It’s an opportunity for a stepping stone for them. I know for us when we first started playing in them we got to the final of the Players’ back in 2005 and that was kind of our stepping stone. That got us enough points to get in and once we got in we were able to stay in.” 

Gushue has won the past two Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling events undefeated running the table at the Elite 10 and the Players’ Championship. The team of Gushue, third Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant, and lead Geoff Walker also captured the Rogers Grand Slam Cup as the season champions. 

Things were a bit dicey in the third end. Tied 1-1, Gushue nearly broke the game open early looking for a four-ender but missed and instead raised Mouat’s stones to give up a steal of one.

“It was a bit of a battle,” Gushue said. “We got off to a good start with a steal in the first end and had a shot for four in the third. I feathered the guard and actually raised them into the button to give them one so that kind of made the game a lot closer than it could have been if I make that shot.” 

Gushue finally got his four-ender in the sixth that put a hold on the game up 7-3. Mouat took two in the seventh and sat another pair in eight, but Gushue held the hammer coming home and knocked out one to concede a point but hold on for the W. 

“They played pretty well and in the sixth end we got a couple misses out of them and got a big four end there and that was kind of the end of the game,” Gushue said. “We had a four-point lead at that point, which is usually enough for us with two ends to go and we played the last two ends pretty solid and came out with a win. It’s nice, a nice crowd, the ice was great, so it was a good start.”

Elsewhere, world champion Kevin Koe of Calgary scored an 8-3 victory over Edmonton’s Mick Lizmore. Koe counted three in the first, took two in the fourth and added another trey in six to bring out the early handshakes. Lizmore scored a deuce in the second and was held to a single in the fifth. 

The women’s division also featured a Battle of Alberta with reigning Canadian champion Chelsea Carey of Calgary prevailing 5-4 versus Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque. Carey snapped a 2-2 tie in the sixth with a raise takeout to count three points. Rocque settled for a single in the seventh and Carey conceded a point in the eighth to secure the victory.

Ottawa’s Rachel Homan scored a single in the eighth to edge Edmonton’s Val Sweeting 5-4. 

NOTES: The Humpty’s Champions Cup is the seventh and final event of the 2015-16 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season and runs through to Sunday at the Sherwood Park Arena Sports Centre. … TV coverage begins Thursday on Sportsnet. … The event is the second of two new tournaments added to the schedule this year along with the Tour Challenge, which opened the season in September.