News National

CONCEPTION BAY SOUTH, N.L. — Scotland’s Team Ross Paterson captured their first Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling men’s title at the Boost National.

Paterson clipped countrymen Team Bruce Mouat 4-3 in an extra end during Sunday’s all-Scottish men’s final.

The foursome of Paterson, third Kyle Waddell, second Duncan Menzies and lead Michael Goodfellow collected $30,000 from the $250,000 total purse.

“It feels awesome,” Paterson said. “It feels unreal. It’s something that we all dream of. You want to be playing in Grand Slams and we’ve had a bit of a breakthrough year. We’ve had a little bit of fortune to get into a couple Grand Slams but we’ve found a bit of consistency and to be on the winner’s board is incredible.”

Paterson also secured a spot for the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season finale, the 2019 Humpty’s Champions Cup, at the end of April in Saskatoon and said that’s what they were after.

“When we sat down at the start of the season and you write down your plans and your goals, it’s part of that,” he said. “It’s just nice that the hard work is paying off a little bit now and we can start ticking off things that we want to achieve.

“Hopefully, it’s not a one-off. We know hard it is to compete in these events. We’ve just got to make sure that we’re training and training as hard as we can to be as competitive when we come back.”

Team Paterson finished the major tournament with an overall 6-1 record with their lone loss coming in pool play against Mouat, coincidentally. Mouat, who earned his first title in the series at the Boost National last season, was on a roll all week winning six straight including a commanding 7-1 victory over Paterson but couldn’t get going in the final.

The recently crowned European champion Mouat opened with the hammer and just when it looked like he had a shot for a deuce in the first frame, his last rock flashed right through the house leaving Paterson’s shot rock untouched and counting for a single.

Paterson never trailed as Mouat was in chase mode through the cat-and-mouse game the rest of the way. Mouat was forced to a single in two and limited Paterson to a point in four but again had another huge missed opportunity in five as his hit and roll blank attempt landed on the nose and stopped to tie it 2-2 and lose the hammer.

The teams traded singles again in six and eight as Mouat blanked seven to retain the hammer coming home but was unable to count two as his first skip stone, a runback hit, rolled out and he was only able to draw for one on his last to require an extra end.

Paterson made no mistake on his final rock, facing two counters and connecting to roll into the four-foot circle to secure the title.

“I’ve been feeling in a good place,” Paterson said. “Don’t get me wrong, when it came down to the extra end and you know you’ve got a shot for the win you’re always going to be thinking about it ahead, what shot you want left and it was a decision whether it was a draw or the hack weight and we’d seen Mike’s tick shots made in that lane so I was always confident of making that shot and thankfully it came off.”

The No. 1 seed Mouat eliminated home-province heroes Team Brad Gushue of St. John’s in the quarterfinals and Calgary’s Team Kevin Koe in the semis while Team Paterson ousted Sweden’s Team Niklas Edin in the quarterfinals and Team Glenn Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont., in the semifinals to reach their first Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling championship game.

Mouat, third Grant Hardie, second Bobby Lammie and lead Hammy McMillan Jr., earned $18,000.

It was also the first-ever all-Scottish final in Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling history.

“It’s great for Scottish curling,” Paterson said. “The last event we played in Canada was in Penticton and we were in an all-Scottish final against Glen Muirhead and we came out on the wrong end in that one. We had a shot to win, which was tough but we didn’t make it. At the start of this game, we just said if we can give ourselves a shot in an extra end for the win then that’s what we’re after and it managed to come off for us today.”

Later, Ottawa’s Team Rachel Homan face Team Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., in the women’s final at 5:30 p.m. NT / 4 p.m. ET (Sportsnet East, Ontario, Pacific and Sportsnet ONE). Online streaming is available at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).

NOTES: The Boost National is the fourth event and second major of the 2018-19 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season. … Points are also on the line for the Pinty’s Cup, which is awarded to the overall season champions following the conclusion of the Players’ Championship in April. … All games in the series are played to eight ends with 33 minutes of thinking time plus two, 90-second timeouts. The five-rock rule is also in effect.