GSOC Masters Day 4 curling results and playoff qualifiers, Digi Mart USA News: The future of Canadian women’s curling looks strong, with teams such as British Columbia’s Taylor Reese-Hansen and Alberta’s Serena Gray-Withers making it easy to forget about another Albertan team in Selena Sturmay.
However, with performances like the one Sturmay authored on Friday against Sweden’s Team Anna Hasselborg, she will force her name into the conversation. The Edmonton-based team defeated the reigning Olympic champions 7-6 to punch their ticket to the P&H Masters playoffs in Medicine Hat, Alta.
Both teams entered the match sitting on five points, needing a win in order to clinch a playoff spot. While the performance from either side’s front three wasn’t outstanding, the difference was at skip.
Multiple times in the game, when her team needed her the most, Sturmay delivered. Especially in the fifth end, when she made a great angled double runback to score two points.
For Sturmay’s rink, the Masters marked its first Slam since the 2024-25 season. It’s also the first time the Alberta team has reached the playoffs at a Grand Slam of Curling event.
Friday’s results: Nihira 8, Kobayashi 1; Yan Amsterdam 9, Yamaguchi 5; Gim 8, Park 7; Fujisawa 8, Lloyd 1; Epping 8, McDonald 4; Hoesli 11, Hlushak 4; Sturmay 7, Hasselborg 6; Paetz 8, Kitazawa 6; Gray-Withers 7, Einarson 6 (SO); Mouat 6, Jacobs 5; Y. Schwaller 6, Waddell 4; Spiller 11, Koe 5; X.
Schwaller 6, Reese-Hansen 5; Dunstone 6, Casper 4; Homan 6, Wrana 5 (SO); Hardie 7, Bottcher 3.
Canada’s Team Rachel Homan reached the playoffs still without its best, and by doing so has bought more time to figure out its complete game before any panic sets in. Coming into Friday’s game against Sweden’s Isabella Wrana, the 20-time GSOC champion needed just one point to clinch a playoff spot and got off to a strong start, stealing the first three ends to take a 3-0 lead.
Wrana battled back, eventually forcing a shootout with a double in the eighth end to tie the game. Under a new points structure, Homan would have had the hammer in the extra end and was guaranteed the point she needed before throwing her draw to the button in the shootout.
She pinned it anyway for the win and two points.
The concerning part is that the team cannot seem to all play well at the same time. Emma Miskew made nearly everything on Friday, while Tracy Fleury struggled to land shots.
Still, the team’s talent allows it to win games even during a slump, which has to be frustrating for the rest of the field.
Unlike at the Co-op Invitational, Canada’s Team Matt Dunstone left no doubt that it deserves to be in the P&H Masters playoffs, cruising to a 6-4 victory over USA’s Team Danny Casper. The two teams have become a hot topic this season after a previous matchup at the Invitational featured some drama when Casper’s team celebrated a shot early in the game, prompting Dunstone to have words after nailing a game-winning shot.
That was not the case on Friday. Dunstone’s team did not let Casper’s team generate anything except a deuce in the second end, and the Manitoba-based rink made shot after shot.
Now the reigning Brier champions head into the playoffs as the No. 1 seed with a 4-0 record, even without new teammate Mark Nichols, who is out of the event with an upper-body injury. Colton Flasch replaced Nichols and has played well in his first Slam of the season.
As a result of going undefeated in the round robin and beating its new rival, Dunstone’s team will face Casper again in the quarterfinals.
Canada’s Team Brad Jacobs showed fight in its Olympic final rematch against Scotland’s Bruce Mouat on Friday, even though the team had already been eliminated from the playoff race. The Scottish men found their groove and made a lot of shots, while the Alberta-based team struggled through a week where nothing worked.
The reigning Olympic champions still had a real chance late, trailing 6-3 in the eighth end, but Jacobs’ final rock for three did not have enough weight and could not move Mouat’s stone far enough to score three, a fitting summary of their week.
The P&H Masters quarterfinals will be available on Sportsnet+ and Sportsnet ONE, starting at 12:30 p.m. EST / 10:30 a.m.
PCT Saturday. CBC will air the semifinals on Saturday evening.
Championship Sunday will be on Sportsnet.
