‘Trentino tre’ Team Retornaz maintain momentum in HearingLife Tour Challenge
GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. — Joël Retornaz and his Italian club have improved to a 2-0 round-robin record in the HearingLife Tour Challenge despite playing as a three-man squad this week.
Retornaz, third Amos Mosaner and second Sebastiano Arman are missing lead Mattia Giovanella, but the “Trentino tre” scored their second consecutive victory with an 8-2 decision over Switzerland’s Team Hösli during Draw 8 action Wednesday night at the Coca-Cola Centre.
It’s also an improvement for Retornaz from the Boost National two weeks ago in North Bay, Ont., where his team went winless at 0-4 during the 2022-23 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling opening event.
Team Retornaz opened with the hammer and converted for a deuce in the second then doubled their points total stealing a pair in the third.
Team Hösli, with regular third Philipp Hösli skipping this week, recovered with a deuce in the fourth, however, Retornaz matched to count another couple in the fifth and reestablish the four-point advantage. Retornaz cushioned the lead with single steals in six and seven as Hösli dropped to 0-2 and now needs to win out in order to stay in contention.
Canada’s Team Koe also climbed to a 2-0 record with an 8-4 win over Norway’s Team Walstad (1-1). Koe broke a 4-all tie with his second three-ender of the game in the sixth and added some insurance with a single steal in the seventh.
Sweden’s Team Niklas Edin grabbed a share of the lead at 2-0 with a 7-3 victory over Canada’s Team Flasch (0-2).
Canada’s Team Bottcher also fell to a 0-2 record and in the danger zone with a 7-4 loss to Switzerland’s Team Schwaller (1-1).
TIER 2 RESULTS
• Hartung 8, Tao 2
• Wiebe 7, Jacques 1
• Asselin 6, Sturmay 2
• Dropkin 7, Kim 3
UP NEXT
The HearingLife Tour Challenge resumes Thursday with Draw 9 at 8:30 a.m. MT.
Broadcast coverage begins with Draw 10 at 2 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. MT on Sportsnet, Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).
NOTES
The HearingLife Tour Challenge is the second event on the 2022-23 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling calendar with two tiers and a total of 64 teams. Both tiers feature 16 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams. … Round-robin play runs through to Friday as teams play four games against opponents outside of their pool. … The top eight teams overall advance to Saturday afternoon’s quarterfinals. The semifinals are set for Saturday evening with both finals on tap for Sunday.
