Jones, Carruthers take similar paths to Champions Cup title
SHERWOOD PARK, Alta. — The 2015-16 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season has finally come to a close, although it looked like the players didn’t want the year to end.
The Humpty’s Champions Cup men’s final Sunday between Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers and Toronto’s John Epping required not just one extra end but two. Carruthers blanked the first when his hit and stick attempt for the title rolled out to clear the house and a measurement determined the other rocks both teams had were just at the event horizon of the rings and neither one counted.
Carruthers had a trickier shot to draw for the win in double OT by facing a triangle of counters and it almost looked like it was heavy, but the stone put on the brakes just in time for the 4-3 victory.
Fin. Roll credits.
Meanwhile, Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones picked up the inaugural Humpty’s Champions Cup women’s title defeating Ottawa’s Rachel Homan 7-5. Jones was already ahead by a point after five ends and cracked the game wide open in the sixth with a three count that all but put the “three count” to the game.
Homan got a deuce in the seventh end, but trailing by two points without the hammer coming home meant she would have to do something spectacular. However, it was all Jones as she ran Homan out of rocks.
Before we say hello to summer, here are our Eight Ends from the Humpty’s Champions Cup:
1st End: Similar paths for Jones & Carruthers, Pt. I
While the obvious pun headline would be Win-nipeg, both Carruthers and Jones also qualified for the Humpty’s Champions Cup by winning the DEKALB Superspiel held in November in Morris, Man.
The season finale Humpty’s Champions Cup requires teams to capture a high-profile title over the course of the year in order to receive an invite. Among the 15 invites per men’s and women’s divisions are a few spots reserved for World Curling Tour winners based on strength of field. Although Carruthers and Jones would have preferred to guarantee a spot through the front door by winning a Pinty’s GSOC event (or say the Brier or Scotties, respectively), the DEKALB Superspiel had a strong enough SOF to earn them spots.
Seeing which teams qualified and which events they won could have a future impact on the World Curling Tour. Some of the Slam regulars who didn’t make it in this time around may enter more of the smaller tour events next season, thus raising those tournaments’s profiles, and could make those events more competitive. On the other hand, this year has also provided an opportunity for new teams to compete on arena ice and in front of a sold out house at the Sherwood Park Arena Sports Centre.
2nd End: Similar paths for Jones & Carruthers, Pt. II
It’s cliché to say the third time is the charm, but it works here. Team Jones was playing in their third consecutive Pinty’s GSOC final — following runner-up finishes at the Meridian Canadian Open and the Players’ Championship — and came out on top at the Humpty’s Champions Cup.
They also snapped a two-year Pinty’s GSOC title drought (if you consider two years a drought) with their previous win at the 2014 Players’ Championship.
It was also Jones’s sixth Pinty’s GSOC title, the most among all women’s skips, snapping a tie with Homan at five.
For Carruthers it was a slightly different story but a similar road. He had won a GSOC title previously when he played front-end for Jeff Stoughton capturing the 2013 National. Carruthers returned to skip last season forming a new team with Braeden Moskowy, Derek Samagalski and Colin Hodgson and qualified for the playoffs at three Pinty’s GSOC events, but couldn’t get past the quarterfinals.
They cracked that barrier this year in season No. 2 reaching the final at the National (falling to Team Brad Gushue) and matched that result at the Elite 10 (again losing to Gushue). Carruthers sustained just one loss over the course of the Humpty’s Champions Cup (three guesses to whom … okay it was Gushue) and probably breathed a sigh of relief when Epping knocked off Gushue in the semifinals.
You could tell Carruthers was close to winning his first as a skip in his previous runner-up finishes. He had a couple big-time shots at the National that missed but could have swung the momentum of the game while the Elite 10 final came down to a draw-to-the-button shootout that even Gushue admitted was like a luck of the dice.
The Humpty’s Champions Cup was finally their big-time moment and one they can cherish.
3rd End: Sensational seasons for Gushue and Homan
It’s impossible to overstate just how incredible the seasons Gushue and Homan had this year.
Both teams captured three Pinty’s GSOC titles and earned the Rogers Grand Slam Cup as the overall season bonus points leaders (with an extra $75,000 paycheck each).
Gushue and Homan also reached the finals at two other Pinty’s GSOC events. Homan even competed against the men at the Elite 10 and proved the gender gap in curling is closer than we thought. Her team featuring third Emma Miskew, second Joanne Courtney and lead Lisa Weagle held their own and even scored a win over Team Charley Thomas.
Team Gushue — with third Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant, and lead Geoff Walker — ran the table in consecutive events to win the Elite 10 and the Players’ Championship.
It was truly a banner year for both teams.
4th End: Full circle for Team Einarson
It’s been a breakout season for Kerri Einarson starting from the bottom and now they’re here as Slam regulars. Her team from East St. Paul, Man., featuring Selena Kaatz, Liz Fyfe, and Kristin MacCuish, started the season winning their first title together at the Tour Challenge Tier 2.
That win carried an invite to the party at the Masters, where they were semifinalists. Considering Einarson watched the 2014 Masters as a fan, and was featured in the original episode of “Pete on the Street”, and just a year later was on the ice playing in the event, that’s quite the turnaround.
They also claimed the Manitoba Scotties title this season following back-to-back runner-up finishes.
As it turned out the Tour Challenge Tier 2 title was the one that helped them qualify for the Humpty’s Champions Cup where they finished among the final four once again.
It’s also been a difficult year for the team playing with heavy hearts following the passing of Fyfe’s father, curling legend Vic Peters, winner of the 1992 Brier. Peters played an integral role in the founding of the Pinty’s GSOC series as one of the “Original 18” skips and the curling community paid tribute by wearing wristbands in his honour last month during the Players’ Championship.
5th End: Rocque’s rising rookie year quite the feat
Kelsey Rocque entered the tour season straight out of juniors having won back-to-back world junior titles in 2014 and 2015. Now aged out, Rocque was ready for the world’s best and proved she’s among the elite already with her Edmonton team featuring third Laura Crocker, second Taylor McDonald (who won the 2014 world junior title with Rocque), and lead Jen Gates.
Rocque finished eighth on the World Curling Tour’s year-to-date order of merit and cashed in over $100,000. The University of Alberta student also skipped the Pandas to the CIS crown alongside teammate McDonald. Rocque and McDonald will get the opportunity to wear the maple leaf again as they will represent Canada at the 2017 Winter Universiade in Kazakhstan.
Team Rocque competed in five Pinty’s GSOC events this season and qualified for the playoffs in four of them. Along with the two tour titles they picked up along the way, it was a huge learning experience year for Rocque.
6th End: Eriksson breaks the scoreboard, Edin breaks Gushue’s win streak
Leave it to Oskar Eriksson to ease the tension during the final end of the round-robin match Thursday night between his team skipped by Niklas Edin that faced Team Gushue.
Eriksson missed his second shot and casually flipped his water bottle towards the end of the sheet in frustration, but it took an extra spin and hit the scoreboard causing the numbers to come crashing down.
That seemed to lighten the mood for Edin to make a beauty with his last to score two for the win and snap Gushue’s series winning streak at 16 games.
7th End: Epping angle-raises again
We’ve seen Epping make shots like these this season already en route to the Canadian Open title, but they’re still amazing to watch.
Watch Epping make an incredible angle-raise double to score two against Gushue during Saturday’s semifinals and set the table for the victory.
8th End: New teams shine under the spotlight
The qualification process for the Humpty’s Champions Cup meant a few teams would make their Pinty’s GSOC series debut. Would they thrive or crack under the pressure?
Satsuki Fujisawa and Ayumi Ogasawara of Japan rose to the challenge. Ogasawara was the lone skip to go 4-0 through round-robin play. Fujisawa captured the curling world’s attention with a silver-medal finish at the worlds and delivered again, but came up short of qualifying falling to Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland in the tiebreaker. Tirinzoni defeated Ogsawara in the quarterfinals too.
Meanwhile, world junior champions Bruce Mouat of Scotland and Kristin Clarke of Chester, N.S., didn’t get too star-struck to take down their idols.
Mouat made to the tiebreakers defeating world men’s reps Niklas Edin of Sweden and American John Shuster along the way. Clarke, skipping the rink formerly known as Team Mary Fay, stunned Scotties winner Chelsea Carey in her first game with back-to-back steals in the eighth and extra ends for a victory.
Skip Mary Fay couldn’t make it to the event due to high school exams and third Clarke moved up to the role with their world juniors alternate Sarah Daniels of B.C. playing third. The full story came out afterward with Fay making the difficult decision to step back from curling to focus on school.
Extra End: Sendoff for Team Simmons
It was an emotional Saturday for Team Pat Simmons as they took to the ice one last time together. Team Simmons came up short against Team Epping in the quarterfinals as they now head their separate ways.
Second Carter Rycroft and lead Nolan Thiessen are both stepping back from competitive curling. Third John Morris, who missed the event recovering from a hernia injury, is re-joining Jim Cotter’s team in B.C. Simmons wasn’t a free agent for long announcing Sunday he’ll be playing third for Brendan Bottcher’s team in Edmonton next season.
Double Extra End: The dramatic finish to the season
We had to save this one for a 10th end, right? Watch as Carruthers hits and rolls his last in the extra end to force a double extra end.
That was intense, now watch Carruthers make his last in double OT for the win.
