 Scotland's Team Bruce Mouat (photo: Anil Mungal, GSOC) remains perfect through Slam season, capturing their second title. Team Mouat produced a clinical display in the final of the Co-op Canadian Open in Nisku, Alberta, to defeat the host nation's top team 6-3 and continue a run that has seen them win all 13 of their matches on this season's Grand Slam of Curling circuit. The re-match of both the final at the 2023 World Championships and last month's Tour Challenge, this season's previous Grand Slam event, produced the same outcome as Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, and Hammy McMillan dominated from the opening end, where they registered a three to seize the initiative against Team Gushue. Up against a re-modelled opposition, with Brendan Bottcher, the only rival skip to have beaten Brad Gushue to victory at the Canadian Championships in the 2020s, having joined their ranks since that Tour Challenge final, the world number one ranked Scottish quartet produced a near flawless display of precision and power from that point to deny their opponents any way back into the match. "We're playing really well and loving being on the ice in the Slams," said skip Mouat. "We didn't play amazingly well all week, but we did really well to figure out what we were doing and got to a point where we were playing really well, then peaked perfectly for the semi-final and final." He noted that the tone had been set even before the match got properly underway with the draw shot to the button, which decided who would have the hammer (last stone advantage) at the opening end. Gushue went first and produced a superb shot to the back of the button at the centre of the house, but Mouat then followed that by getting his stone even closer to the centre. "The draw to the button was really important for us," Mouat acknowledged. "We know we're playing really well when we have hammer, so getting the jump at the start of the game was really important for us. "That was a real key moment in the game, which then carried through to the first end where we've taken a three." Matters were concluded in good-humoured vein at the end of the seventh of the eight scheduled ends when Gushue effectively conceded defeat by producing a trick shot with his final stone, delivering it through his legs before handshakes were exchanged. It was Team Mouat's fourth title this season. Their attention now switches to another title defence at the Le Gruyere AOP European Championships in Finland, where they are looking to win the title for the fifth time in five attempts. "We've just played extremely well over the last two events and it feels like we're in a good spot going into the Europeans, which is important for us because we really want to be able to put on a good show when we have Team Scotland on our backs, so, we're very excited to see where we can go from here." said Mouat. In saying so, he expressed a determination to keep building on this momentum as they aim to reclaim the world title and look towards gaining selection for the 2026 Winter Olympics, where they will be aiming to improve on the silver medal they won in Beijing in 2022. "We know that playing this well isn't something that just happens," said Mouat. "We've put in a lot of work to get to this point, and really sticking together as a team and looking to figure out exactly what we're doing allows us to be this dominant. "So, trying to work out how to bottle that and take it into the next few events is going to be important." Fellow Scots Team Whyte also continued a run of consistent form at Grand Slams, reaching the knockout stages for the eighth successive time, while compatriots Team Craik gained further experience at elite level, claiming a notable win along the way in their defeat of Italy's former world number one ranked Team Retornaz. In spite of that loss in the round-robin stages, the Italians went on to beat Whyte's men in the quarter-finals before running into Team Mouat in the semi-finals. |
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Winnipeg's Matt Dunstone (Photo: Anil Mungal/GSOC) will be the number two seed in the men's playoff round at the KIOTI GSOC Tahoe beginning Saturday.
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