![]() Duluth's John Shuster (Photo: Joao Boente) defeated Sweden's Niklas Edin 7-2 in the final at the Oslo Cup in Oslo, Norway. By Connor Simms, #22 Christopher Plys with Colin Hufman and Matt Hamilton played without skip John Shuster in Oslo, Norway, at the Oslo Cup. Shuster has had a hot start to the season with a win at the USA Curling Pan-continental qualifiers and a semi-final finish at the Euro Super Series in Stirling, Scotland. Their next event was at the Oslo Cup in Norway, where they took on Sweden's Niklas Edin in the final. Shuster started the game with the hammer due to their better round robin record. In the first end, Plys capitalized with the first hammer, drawing to the eight-foot for their deuce. After a blank in the second end, Edin grabbed a deuce after making an open hit and stick. Plys was quick to respond, making a peel weight hit to remove a locked Edin stone for their deuce. Plys broke the game open with a steal of two after Edin was only able to remove one stone on a runback against three. It was handshakes in the sixth end, after Plys stole one more to win 7-2. Shuster went 4-1 in the round robin. In their opening game, they defeated Scotland's James Craik 8-2, then won 3-2 against Czechia's Lukas Klima and Norway's Grunde Buraas. They then beat Norway's Eirik Mjoen 6-2, and then suffered their first loss to Scotland's Orrin Carson 4-3. In the quarterfinals, they defeated Norway's Andreas Harstad 7-6, then defeated Switzerland's Jan Iseli 7-4. On the women's side, Switzerland's Xenia Schwaller defeated Norway's Torhild Bjoernstad 7-2 in the final. Shuster returns to North America for their next event, when they will play in the AMJ Masters Tier 2 event in London, Ontario. |