![]() Scotland's Team Bruce Mouat (Photo: Anil Mungal/GSOC) continue their dominance in lead up to Cortina. By: Cameron Sallaj It was another championship title for Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan Jr. at KIOTI GSOC Tahoe on Sunday as they took one in shootout for a 7-6 win against Winnipeg's Matt Dunstone in a battle of world #1 versus #2. Both coming into the game undefeated, Mouat outdrew Dunstone in the pre-game last stone draw and used it to convert two in the opening end. The Canadians matched this score in the second end to tie things up. After swapping singles in the third and fourth, Dunstone took a pivotal steal in the fifth end to earn their first lead of the game. After forcing the Scotts to one in six, the Winnipeg squad counted two in the seventh to lead 6-4 coming home. Facing two on his last stone, Matt Dunstone had an opportunity to end the game with a double takeout, however, overcurled and only removed one Mouat stone. This allowed the reigning champions an open hit for two, sending the game to a sudden death shootout to decide the winner. Electing to go first, Dunstone's attempt came up just shy of the pin at 9.8 cm. Needing a better piece of the button for the win, Mouat's draw slid further than Lammie and McMillan expected, just off the pinhole on the back of the button. After a measurement, Mouat's rock was announced as 9.5 cm, beating out Dunstone by 0.3 centimeters and taking the championship by millimeters. It was another dominant week at the Slam for Team Mouat, who won all seven of their games en route to claiming the title. After beginning with a narrow 7-6 win over Germany's Marc Muskatewitz, the team won 6-1 over Mike McEwen (Saskatoon, SK) and 7-4 against Niklas Edin (Karlstad, SWE) to secure their playoff spot. In their final round robin game, the team defeated Jared Allen's All-Star team, including third John Morris and fourth Wayne Middaugh 8-2 to take the top playoff seed. Facing Team McEwen again in the quarterfinals, Team Mouat won again by a score of 8-4, advancing to the semifinals against Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller. There, they sat tied with the Swiss without the hammer heading to the final end, but managed a steal of one to advance to the championship game. The KIOTI GSOC Tahoe marks Team Mouat's 12th career slam title and their third at the National, which was rebranded to the GSOC Tahoe for this season. They have won six of the past eight GSOC events and have not lost a Grand Slam final they have played in since the 2022 WFG Masters in December 2022. |
















