Roundup: Alpine triumphs over Northern to complete first sweep

TORONTO — It was a day of firsts for Rock League as Alpine Curling Club completed the first-ever 3-0 sweep in its match over Northern United on Wednesday afternoon. 

After a decisive 8-3 victory in the men’s game and a 4-3 win on the women’s side, it came down to another league debut as Almida de Val drew for a piece of the button in the first shootout to secure the 8-7 mixed doubles win. 

Alpine earned a bonus half point for the three-game sweep and now sits at the top of the standings. The franchise holds a 2-1 record and 2.5 points after losing the season-opener Monday to Shield Curling Club and bouncing back with a win over Frontier Curling Club on Tuesday night.

Captain Alina Pätz, who skips the women’s team, said it felt amazing to make Rock League history — even if it’s only the third day of the inaugural season. 

“Our game was so close,” she said. “It was a back-and-forth game. I just got a little lucky at the end, but it was a well-played game, well-played round. I think we are just piling up and getting better and better each day.” 

It was a bit of a slow start but a strong finish for Alpine's women's team.

Northern’s Isabella Wranå started with the hammer, but opted to concede a point in the first as Pätz stole to open the scoring.

Wranå recovered with an open hit for two in the second to take the lead. Pätz had the tying point in her pocket in the third and was looking to add another, however, she wrecked on a guard and had to settle for just the single. 

Alpine jumped ahead 4-2 with back-to-back steals as Wranå’s last in the fourth flew by the shot rock and her angle raise in the fifth connected but took out her own stone too, with her raised stone rolling away as well, to surrender another point. 

Alpine poured on the pressure in the sixth with six rocks touching the paint, but Wranå drew cooly right to the button for her single point. That handed the hammer over to Alpine for the final end, and Pätz pulled off the double takeout to clear the deck. 

“It was great. We actually struggled a bit in the first half. I think they outplayed us, but we managed to stay in the game,” Pätz said. “It was just very important for us to switch the hammer right away in the first end, and that helped obviously. 

“I think in the second half we outplayed them in almost every end, and I think we deserved that win.”

Alpine’s Joël Retornaz counted three in the first and had Northern’s Bruce Mouat chasing from there in the men’s game.

Trailing 4-1 after three, Mouat attempted tricky runbacks in four and five that led to back-to-back single steals. Mouat kept grinding away — as total points scored count toward tiebreakers in the standings — and tapped for two in the sixth. Retornaz matched with a deuce in the seventh for added insurance.

De Val and Oskar Eriksson took the lead late in the mixed doubles game, capitalizing on the power play in the sixth end. De Val ran back Northern’s guard to remove the counter hiding on the button, spilling both away to score a huge count of four and a 6-4 advantage.

Northern’s Giulia Zardini Lacedelli missed a runback in seven to give up a steal, but was able to tie it up with a three-ender in the eighth. Zardini Lacedelli was actually looking to hit and roll to the pin to get the two-point bonus and win the game, however, her shooter landed right on the nose.

That pushed it to the shootout, with Zardini Lacedelli firing first. Her shooter looked heavy as sweeper Rasmus Wranå backed off, landing at the back of the four-foot circle and giving de Val a bit of breathing room for her to make her shot.

It was the first loss of the week for Northern (2-1, two points). 

Up next 

• Maple United (1-1) vs. Frontier Curling Club (0-2) — 3:30 p.m. ET 

• Shield Curling Club (1-1) vs. Typhoon Curling Club (1-1) — 7 p.m. ET