Dropkin kicks off KIOTI National with win over Koe

PICTOU COUNTY, N.S. — Korey Dropkin is back to his winning ways at the Pictou County Wellness Centre.

Dropkin captured the Tour Challenge Tier 2 title during his previous visit to the venue four years ago to earn a promotion to the top flight. With his American club now firmly among the world’s best, Dropkin defeated Kevin Koe’s Canadian crew 7-6 Tuesday morning to kick off the KIOTI National.

"I’ve got some great memories of Pictou of course," Dropkin said. "It’s nice to be in the tier one event playing here. It was nice to get into Halifax a day early, spend some time around the city and now up here it’s good. We’re looking forward to this week and looking forward to hopefully getting some more wins here."

Dropkin had to make a high-pressure draw against three Koe counters with his last rock of the game and landed on the lid to boot.

"Thankfully we had the draw for the win and we were able to make it," Dropkin said. "It always feels nice, kind of a confidence boost, making that draw to the full four for the win. It’s good.

"I was able to thankfully throw a draw in the seventh end to get my draw weight down. I hadn’t thrown one all game, I don’t think, so it was a nice little grace there and thankfully we were able to just lay it out for the boys and have them just sweep it to the tee line."

It was deuces wild to start. Dropkin opened with the hammer and bumped for two points in the first, Koe also made a hit to count a couple in the second and Dropkin responded with a double takeout to pot another pair in the third to make it 4-2.

Dropkin put the clamp down in the fourth end as Koe was forced to draw into the four-foot circle for just a single. However, Koe managed to square it up 4-all in the fifth end as Dropkin attempted another double for a deuce but missed the back counter.

The one that got away came back in the sixth as Dropkin hit for two, and Koe tapped to score another pair in the seventh to knot it up again heading into the final frame.

"It's nice. Every time you go into a tournament you want to start off with a win, kind of gives you good energy for the rest of the event and it keeps you motivated playing against all these teams," Dropkin said. "There’s no easy team here, no easy game, so we’ve just got to start sharp and stay sharp throughout the week."

Elsewhere in Draw 1, Joël Retornaz and his Italian club picked up where they left off in the Grand Slam series with a 7-4 win over Riku Yanagisawa's team from Japan. Retornaz captured the HearingLife Tour Challenge, his second career Grand Slam men's title, just a little over two weeks ago in Niagara Falls, Ont.

Yannick Schwaller's Swiss side stopped Reid Carruthers' Canadian club with a 7-5 decision and Bruce Mouat scored a 6-4 set over James Craik in an all-Scottish rink matchup.

UP NEXT

The KIOTI National continues with Draw 2 at 11:30 a.m. local time (AT).

Broadcast coverage begins Thursday at 11 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. PT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.

NOTES

The KIOTI National is the second event of the Grand Slam of Curling season featuring 16 of the top men's teams and 16 of the top women's teams from around the world. ... Each team plays four round-robin games with the top eight advancing to Saturday's quarterfinals. ... The semifinals are also on tap Saturday with both finals scheduled for Sunday.