Eight Ends: Homan on pace for another phenomenal season

NISKU, Alta. — Call it the house that Homan built.

The Silent Ice Center opened its doors in September 2023 and it was skip Rachel Homan who brought the arena to the attention of the Grand Slam of Curling as a potential host for a tournament.

One step led to another and the Co-op Canadian Open became the first major broadcasted event at the Silent Ice Center.

"I kind of saw it last year and just immediately thought this is a perfect venue for curling," Homan said during a media conference before the event. "It’s kind of the perfect capacity. There are suites. No matter where you are you can see the action. You’re right up close to all of the sheets really."

Homan, who lives nearby in Beaumont, had friends, family and fans pack the stands but it wasn't just her supporters on hand as the community turned up with a capacity crowd throughout the weekend. That includes the women's final as Homan defeated Switzerland's Team Silvana Tirinzoni 7-5.

"It’s so cool," Homan said after claiming her record-extending 16th Grand Slam of Curling women's championship Sunday. "We brought this event here, we were hoping it’d be a success and it was sold out all weekend. It’s just awesome that we could be in the final and take it home for Beaumont."

Here are some more tidbits and takeaways from the Co-op Canadian Open in Eight Ends.

FIRST END: Homan had a year like no other last season as her team went on a Max Verstappen-esque roll capturing Canadian and world championships, two Grand Slam titles and finishing with an incredible 67-7 record. You know what that is? Simply lovely.

This season might be even bigger if that's even imaginable. Homan is already ahead of schedule at this point compared to last season with a Grand Slam of Curling title win on top of finishing runner-up to Team Kerri Einarson in last month's HearingLife Tour Challenge.

* Team Einarson represented Canada at the 2023 Pan Continental Curling Championships.

Even if you take out the Pan Continental Curling Championships to equal the number of events, that still puts Homan at 24-2 (.923 winning percentage) this season.

"It’s been awesome, especially just continuing from last year," Team Homan second Emma Miskew said. "We knew it would be tough to continue from what happened last year. There are tons of great teams here. We’re going to keep working hard and that’s all we can really do. It’s been a good start to the season so far."

Describing this season in one word, Homan said: "Phenomenal."

"We came up short in the last Slam and we wanted to win that final," she added. "We didn’t play our best and we came out and gave it our all here. Thankfully, that was enough." 

SECOND END: It's interesting how momentum can swing in a championship game. Homan gave up a steal in the third end against Tirinzoni to fall behind 3-2 but came charging back with a huge fourth end to score three points and never trailed again.

The shot Homan made was absolutely outstanding — definitely an early shot-of-the-year candidate — as she saw just enough of Tirinzoni's shot rock to send it through the port between her stones, with not even a scratch on either one, and saved the shooter.

Even Homan was surprised to score three as two was the most probable outcome.

“That was the smallest hole I’ve ever seen,” Homan said. “I wasn’t quite sure if it was there. Trying to go for two, you always hope for the best and just feathered that hole.”

THIRD END: Scotland's Team Bruce Mouat faced off against Canada's Team Brad Gushue in a second consecutive Grand Slam of Curling men's final. And for the second consecutive time, Mouat came out on top defeating Gushue 6-2 to win the Co-op Canadian Open men's title once again.

Like Homan, Mouat also went undefeated at 7-0 to successfully defend the title as both won the event last season in Red Deer, Alta.

Mouat's eighth Grand Slam title victory moves him up on the all-time skip wins list in the series. He's now level with Wayne Middaugh in fourth place and trailing only Kevin Martin (18), Gushue (15) and Glenn Howard (14).

Overall, Mouat is 13-0 in the Grand Slam series this season as he also swept through the HearingLife Tour Challenge.

Stretching back to last season, Mouat has won three of the past four Grand Slam titles. His first Canadian Open title came in January and completed a career Grand Slam as Mouat became just the sixth men's skip to win all four majors in the series. His 10-3 victory over Gushue in the HearingLife Tour Challenge final unlocked another achievement. Mouat joined Gushue as the only men's skips to complete the list and capture all five current event titles in the series.

Considering Mouat just turned 30 over the summer, he should continue to leave his mark on the GSOC record book (which isn't actually a book but a Google Drive doc).

FOURTH END: Mouat also has fierce competition from back home. Team Ross Whyte continues to knock on the door having now qualified for the playoffs in an eighth straight Grand Slam event. Team James Craik just missed the cut at 1-3 on a heartbreaker. Craik needed a win in the final round-robin draw to secure a spot in the tiebreakers but lost on a steal in an extra end to Canada's Team Reid Carruthers.

The Co-op Canadian Open also featured a "Stirling derby" as Whyte and Craik faced off in the round-robin stage. Whyte came out on top 5-2.

“It’s brilliant to see them progressing as a team,” said Whyte, who also defeated Craik in the Scottish Curling Championships final last season. “They’re getting better every year. We always know when we’re coming out here and see them on our side of the draw, it’s going to be a tough game and we’re going to have to go out there and play well.

"It’s always fun. We’re good pals but when we get out on the ice, it’s a good competition.”

Team Cameron Bryce has also played in a couple of Grand Slams over the past two seasons while Team Kyle Waddell is just on the doorstep having played in Tier 2 at the HearingLife Tour Challenge.

"We’re doing a lot of really good things back home," Mouat said after winning the HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 1. "We’ve got a lot of really good teams that are coming through. It’s not a constant fight, but I always believed that if you have that fight back home, it really brings out the best in a lot of the teams and that’s exactly what I’m thinking is happening. We’re all pushing so hard to try and be better than the next team and then we’re proving that on the world stage when we’re coming out and playing the Slams. A lot of the Scottish teams are doing amazing."

There were even Scottish fans among the mostly pro-Canada, pro-Gushue crowd during the Co-op Canadian Open men's final.

"We know that the Scotland-Canadian link is pretty strong, so now that we’ve been here for a while, we’re starting to see some fans turning out for us, which is really nice," Mouat said. "There were people with ‘Mouat’ signs as well, which was really special. We’ve not really had that before. Edmonton’s been really nice for us."

FIFTH END: Next up for Team Mouat is defending the gold medal at the European Curling Championships, Nov. 16-23, in Lohja, Finland. It certainly bodes well entering that event having won back-to-back Grand Slams undefeated.

The top eight teams qualify their countries for the world championship.

"We’re going there with a mission of doing better than that and hopefully, winning it again," Mouat said. "It’s nice to have this competition before we go there knowing that we’re playing against the best teams in the world and going into the Europeans, which is going to be a tough event."

Team Mouat third Grant Hardie added: "It’s good. It’s such a busy month. We’re straight to the Europeans and when you’re playing well, you’re on a roll, you just want to keep it going, so hopefully we’ll not tire until December."

SIXTH END: One of the burning questions entering the Co-op Canadian Open was: How would Team Gushue fare with former skip Brendan Bottcher now at second?

Bottcher became an unexpected unrestricted free agent during the off-season as third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert chose to go in a different direction and recruited skip Brad Jacobs. The five-time Grand Slam champion Bottcher is playing mixed doubles with Homan and was coaching her women's team until he got the call from Gushue after the team parted ways with E.J. Harnden.

While Bottcher made his debut the previous week at the Pan Continental Curling Championships, the Co-op Canadian Open is a different beast with a much stronger field featuring the top teams in the world.

Integrating Bottcher into the lineup and bringing him up to speed has been a lot easier than Gushue thought it would be.

"He’s really easy to get along with us," Gushue said. "I love his perspective on the game and his feedback on strategy, ice and shot selection. He’s a very good weight judge, which I’m thrilled about.

"Obviously, he’s still working on the technique and all that stuff, so we’ve got to give him a bit of time, but he’s far ahead of where I thought he would be, so we’re very happy right now."

Team Gushue lead Geoff Walker echoed those sentiments and said Bottcher has fit in seamlessly so far.

"People give him flack for sweeping, but he’s been doing a great job and sweeping his butt off and judging the rock well," Walker said. "We’re getting along really well and it’s nice for him to be on our team and not playing against him."

Jumping onto a new team and playing back-to-back big events might be tiring, but Bottcher said after the semifinals he was feeling great and it's going a lot better than he imagined as well.

"It’s a lot of energy joining these guys," he said. "I think we have a really good dynamic going on the ice, and when you do that, it just feels a little bit easier."

Team Gushue would have run into the new Team Jacobs during the semis, however, Team Yannick Schwaller denied that as the Swiss squad eliminated Jacobs in the quarterfinals. Maybe we'll see that highly anticipated showdown at the next Grand Slam.

SEVENTH END: After missing the playoffs at the HearingLife Tour Challenge, Team Tirinzoni flipped its front end the following week during the Stu Sells Toronto Tankard with Carole Howald now at second and Selina Witschonke throwing lead. Although it was just for a test run, it appears they're sticking with it.

Tirinzoni, who finished runner-up at the Toronto Tankard, continued with the new look through the Swiss European Qualifier — sweeping Team Xenia Schwaller in four games during a best-of-seven series — and rolled with it at the Co-op Canadian Open.

"I loved it before and I love it now," said Alina Pätz, who throws fourth stones for Tirinzoni. "We told them it’s their decision, but they both feel comfortable in the positions they’re playing right now. Obviously, they can play both positions, but I think we’re all happy with where we are right now."

While Homan swept through the Co-op Canadian Open, Tirinzoni had to take a detour through Saturday morning's tiebreakers and earn a 6-2 win over Japan's Team Sayaka Yoshimura to qualify for the playoffs with a 3-2 record. A 7-4 win over Italy's Team Stefania Constantini in the quarterfinals and a 5-4 win over South Korea's Team Eun-jung Kim in the semifinals capped a marathon day of curling to reach Championship Sunday.

“I feel good but tired,” Pätz said. “Obviously, it was a grind today, but we had a really good day. We played well just in time."

EIGHTH END: When Team Satsuki Fujisawa won the Co-op Canadian Open two seasons ago, becoming the first Japanese club to capture a Grand Slam title, third Chinami Yoshida said: “For all of the Japanese curlers, it’s kind of a dream to be a champion of the Grand Slams but right now, it’s not just a dream, it’s a goal. I hope that not just us but maybe every Japanese team coming to the Grand Slams can compete at this amazing competition together.”

The goal to see more Japanese teams competing in the Grand Slams became a reality this week. Team Fujisawa was one of four Japanese clubs in the women's division alongside Team Yoshimura, Team Ikue Kitazawa and Team Momoha Tabata. While Team Yoshimura has played in the series numerous times, finishing runner-up in the 2019 Masters, it was the top-tier debut for Team Kitazawa and Team Tabata.

Japan isn't the only Asian country making inroads in the series. This was also the first Grand Slam of Curling event to feature two South Korean teams in the semifinals as Team Seung-youn Ha and Team Eun-jung Kim reached the final four.

If you found that surprising, it could have been three. Team Gim had an off-week and did not qualify, snapping a six-event playoff streak. Gim's rapid rise can be traced to when former skip Min-ji Kim joined in April 2022. Since then, Team Gim has reached the semifinals seven times, finishing runner-up in the 2022 Champions Cup and winning last season's KIOTI National.

EXTRA END: The Grand Slam of Curling season resumes in two weeks with the KIOTI National, Nov. 26 to Dec. 1, at the Mary Brown's Centre in St. John's, N.L.

It'll be a wild homecoming for Team Gushue, with full-event passes sold out. Stay tuned for an announcement of the teams and the draw schedule in the coming days.