Curling's Masters in the hack: Grand-slam event helps teams prepare for nationals

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Timing is everything in curling. And so the Masters arrives at the perfect moment for Team Kerri Einarson.

With just a few weeks remaining before the 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the four-time national champions are in need of the Grand Slam of Curling event to help truly prepare them for the Canadian finale since they’ve added new blood in second Karlee Burgess to the Manitoba crew.

“Looking forward to getting on the ice as a full team with Karlee,” said skip Einarson, who was able to attract the talented curler to join her ultra-successful lineup just as the calendar flipped into January.

“We need to get in an event before Scotties so that curling with a different lineup is not so new for us.”

The World Financial Group Masters offers just that kind of opportunity for not only Team Einarson but for every team — 32 in all — entered at the grand slam, beginning Tuesday in Guelph, Ont. …

THE MASTERS PLAN

The fourth event on the Grand Slam of Curling schedule opens with four days of round-robin action — Tuesday through Friday — each with four draws per day (ET) — 8 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

The playoffs are set for Saturday:
• 7:30 a.m. (tiebreakers, if needed)
• 11 a.m. (men’s quarterfinals)
• 3 p.m. (women’s quarterfinals)
• 7 p.m. (semifinals)

Followed by Sunday’s championship day:
• Noon (men’s final)
• 4:30 p.m. (women’s final)

All draws streamed live on hometeamlive.com. Draws Thursday through Sunday televised on Sportsnet.

THE MASTERS LINEUP

Women
Stefania Constantini
Kerri Einarson
Satsuki Fujisawa
Gim Eun-ji
Ha Seung-youn
Anna Hasselborg
Rachel Homan
Danielle Inglis
Kim Eun-jung
Ikue Kitazawa
Kaitlyn Lawes
Xenia Schwaller
Kayla Skrlik
Momoha Tabata
Silvana Tirinzoni
Isabella Wrana

Men
Korey Dropkin
Matt Dunstone
Niklas Edin
John Epping
Brad Gushue
Marco Hoesli
Brad Jacobs
Rylan Kleiter
Jordon McDonald
Mike McEwen
Bruce Mouat
Marc Muskatewitz
Magnus Ramsfjell
Joel Retornaz
Yannick Schwaller
Ross Whyte

WHAT DO THE MASTERS MEAN FOR EINARSON?

Burgess, 26, joins Einarson as the crew’s new second with star Shannon Birchard shelved by an undiagnosed knee issue.

The uncertain injury is just one more obstacle thrown at Einarson and veteran third Val Sweeting since winning four consecutive Scotties from 2020-23.

Recall that the Manitoba squad lost lead Briane Harris just ahead of last winter’s Calgary-hosted Scotties when she was deemed ineligible for the national championship for testing positive for the banned substance Ligandrol.

Since then, Krysten Karwacki has taken up the lead job for Einarson.

Harris was handed an up-to-four-year suspension for the doping violation.

But early Tuesday — 10-plus months later — a decision on her subsequent appeal came down from the Court of Arbitration for Sport, saying the provisional ban has been lifted “with immediate effect” by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after it found she bears “no fault or negligence” for the anti-doping rule violation.

“After what had to have unimaginable stress on Briane and her family, we’re so happy and relieved to see Briane’s case resolved today,” said Team Einarson in a statement Tuesday. “It has been a difficult 11 months for all of us not knowing what was going to happen, so we’re thankful that we can all move forward with some clarity.

“This week, we are treating the WFG Masters Grand Slam event in Guelph as a team dress rehearsal for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts with the lineup we announced earlier this month.

“Once this event is done, and after we assess where we’re at, we will sit down as a team for further discussions.

“We will have no further comment on today’s announcement until then.”

The curve-balls have just kept coming at Einarson & Co.

“Yeah … it definitely seems that way,” said the decorated skip.

“We’re currently curling with 50 per cent of our curling team that we’ve had together for the last seven years. So it’s, for sure, been difficult to lose both of our front-end players.

“We’ve had everything thrown at us and can’t seem to to catch a break. But I think we finally maybe caught one getting Karlee. So we’re really excited about that.”

Along the way, Einarson and Sweeting have managed to limit the damage with talent filling in for Harris and now Birchard out of commission.

Karwacki’s certainly pulled her weight at lead, highlighted by her first-team all-star nod at the 2024 Scotties.

Now Einarson and Sweeting are hoping for similar results from Burgess.

“We love her energy and what she brings to the game,” said Einarson of her new second. “Karlee played with Jennifer Jones for a couple years, and she’s had a lot of success and been in a lot of those big games and situations, so we knew she’d be a great fit for our team.

“Yes, we have a new front end,” continued Einarson. “Krysten played with us on the Scotties last year, so she’s got a feel for it. Karlee’s lost two Manitoba finals, so she’s hungry to win. And we are wanting to get back on the world stage, too. Our standards are going to be the same as they always have been. And so we’re gonna come out there firing.”

They hope this week’s Masters helps to fuel that.

“It’s about just getting comfortable with everyone and getting comfortable as a team,” added Burgess. “Communication on the ice is going to be really important.

“Playing in the slam and getting a couple games under a belt is really important, because we’ve obviously never played a game together. At the end of the day, we need to be 100 per cent ready and comfortable for when we enter Scotties.”

ROAD TO SCOTTIES/BRIER

Bayly Scoffin defended her Yukon championship over the weekend with a 3-1 series win over Patty Wallingham in the best-of-five set. Wallingham took the first game 6-5, before Scoffin, Raelyn Helston, Bailey Horvey and Kimberly Tuor battled back for consecutive 9-3, 9-5 and 7-4 victories at the Whitehorse Curling Club.

Thomas Scoffin also defended his Yukon title with a three-game sweep of Ray Mikkelsen in 7-4, 7-2, 8-4 fashion, also at the WCC. Scoffin, Bayly’s older brother, is joined by third Kerr Drummond, second Trygg Jensen and lead Joe Wallingham.

Nunavut’s Brier rep is Shane Latimer, who defended his title won last year with a three-game sweep in a best-of-five series with three-time territory king Peter Mackey. Skip Latimer, third Sheldon Wettig, second Justin McDonell and lead Peter Van Strien won 9-3, 8-3 and 8-2 over Mackey in the weekend battle — called the ‘Men’s Territorials’ — at the Iqaluit Curling Club.

CANADA AT UNIVERSITY GAMES

Canada has three entries at the 2025 World University Games in Torino, Italy.

The mixed doubles event got underway Saturday, two days before the Games officially open, with Jessica Zheng (University of Waterloo) and Victor Pietrangelo (Brock University) representing the nation.

The duo, from Niagara Falls, Ont., has already qualified for the playoffs with a 6-1 round-robin record through three days and now play Germany in semifinal action Tuesday.

Curling Canada’s Helen Radford is the coach.

The men’s and women’s four-player curling follow in bids for glory.

The Canadian women hail from the University of Alberta with the Pandas crew comprised of skip Serena Gray-Withers, vice-skip Catherine Clifford, second Brianna Cullen, lead Zoe Cinnamon, fifth Gracelyn Richards and coach Rob Krepps.

The men’s squad is from the University of Regina. The Cougars features skip Josh Bryden, third Adam Bukurak, second Carter Williamson, lead Ayden Wittmire, team coach Jamie Schneider and bench coach Ryan Grabarczyk.

tsaelhof@postmedia.com

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