News Masters

GUELPH, Ont. — The winning streak continues for Team Rachel Homan.

The Ottawa-based club won its 26th consecutive game on tour and third straight at the WFG Masters after defeating Team Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., 6-2 Thursday in Draw 10 action at the Sleeman Centre.

Homan, who swept through the past two Grand Slam of Curling events, booked a spot in the playoffs with a game in hand while handing Einarson (2-1) her first loss of the week.

“It feels great, I mean, especially (since) we’re not always firing on all cylinders but we’re making the right shots when we need to,” Team Homan second Emma Miskew said. “Winning close games is really important, so it’s nice to get a playoff spot now. We’ll just try to go into tomorrow, learn a little bit more about the ice, throw good throws at Rachel and that’s all we can do.”

The Grand Slam of Curling staged its first-ever draft last month with the top four teams selecting their pool opponents for the event. As the No. 1 ranked team, Homan also selected her crossover pool opponent and picked Einarson.

“It’s tough because all of the teams are so good,” Miskew said. “To pick who you want to line up against, I find is kind of awkward in that way because you’re essentially picking a team that you think you can beat. We don’t think that about anyone in these events. We think every team is tough to play, so picking a team, we found it kind of uncomfortable.

“We knew that everyone was going to play well whether the draw was not a draft or whether it was, so we were just trying to go and play our game. It’s an interesting concept but it is kind of uncomfortable.”

The 17-time Grand Slam champion Homan held control through the first half. Homan split the house in the second end to set up an open hit to score two points.

Einarson looked to blank the third, however, her hit-and-roll attempt stopped short and remained in the rings to count for a single.

Homan hit for another deuce in the fourth and a 4-1 advantage.

Einarson got her blank in the fifth, however, a new rule is being tested this week where teams will lose the hammer if they blank two consecutive ends. That changed things in the sixth as Homan sat a biter at the edge of the rings and Einarson opted to draw for a single to at least score a point before losing the hammer.

“That’s the first time that we’ve seen it actually come into play,” Miskew said. “I think it’s going to make a bigger difference on the men’s side just with the way that they blow up the ends. It is interesting. It does play into your strategy a little bit on how hard you go for a multiple when you can’t blank the end anyway.

“I’m sure as the week goes on we’ll see a little bit more like that. I think we’ve seen it on the men’s side already, like blanking the wrong end from an evens and odds perspective can be detrimental.”

Homan was forced to draw for a single in the seventh and stole one in the eighth end with her shot rock buried on the button. Einarson was looking to score three or possibly even four points with the last shot of the game, however, her double raise attempt to unlock Homan’s rock went sideways.

In other games, Team Momoha Tabata from Japan defeated Winnipeg’s Team Kaitlyn Lawes 7-4, Team Seung-Youn Ha of South Korea downed Calgary’s Team Kayla Skrlik 9-2 and Sweden’s Team Isabella Wranå beat Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa 7-4.

Tabata and Wranå improved to 2-1 records. Ha, Lawes and Fujisawa are all at 1-2 while Skrlik has been eliminated from playoff contention at 0-3.

UP NEXT

Round-robin play continues with Draw 11 at 3:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 p.m. PT with broadcast coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.

Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.ca.

Live streaming of every game is available in free preview via HomeTeam.

NOTES

The WFG Masters is the fourth Grand Slam of Curling event of the season featuring 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world. … Round-robin play runs through to Friday evening. The top eight teams in both divisions qualify for the playoffs. … If necessary, one tiebreaker round will be held Saturday morning. … The quarterfinals and semifinals are scheduled for Saturday with both finals slated for Sunday.