Watch Live: Shield, Alpine kick off Rock League’s inaugural season

TORONTO — The quest for the inaugural Rock League championship has begun at TMU’s Mattamy Athletic Centre.

All six franchises, featuring five men’s players and five women’s players each, will hit the ice Monday for the opening day of the all-new professional curling league. Alpine Curling Club and Shield Curling Club kick off the festivities, followed by Typhoon Curling Club taking on Frontier Curling Club at 3:30 p.m. ET, and Maple United against Northern United at 7 p.m. ET. 

Tickets and passes are available at rockleague.com/tickets. Upgrade your tickets to sheet side or the VIP experience at The Rock Shop.

Watch live on RockChannel.com and visit our How to Watch page for more ways to catch all of the action in your region, including CBC Gem in Canada and ESPN+ in the United States.

Given that this is the first-ever day of play, here are the key rules to know and players to watch in each match. 

Key rules to know

Three games, one winner: Monday’s matches see franchises go head-to-head in three games: men’s fours, women’s fours and mixed doubles. The franchise that wins two of the three games will receive one point in the standings. If a franchise wins all three games, they will earn a bonus half point.

Fast and focused: The men’s fours and women’s fours games are played to seven ends, with 21 minutes of thinking time per team. Mixed doubles games are played to eight ends, with 23 minutes of thinking time per team. Each team also has three, 60-second timeouts. 

No-tick rule upgraded: No rocks within the free guard zone can be moved until the sixth rock of the end in the fours games, and the fourth thrown rock of the end in mixed doubles. If a stone is ticked/moved, the non-offending team has the option of either removing the shooter from play and returning all stones to their previous positions, or leaving the stones as they are.

It ain’t over until it’s over: All games will go the distance, even if the winner has been decided, as total points scored is used as the tiebreaker in the standings. 

Pin to win: Covering the pin hole in the seventh end of four-player team games and in the eighth end of mixed doubles games is worth two points. 

Overtime: If a game is tied after regulation, a draw-to-the-button shootout will determine the winner.

Round-robin play featuring men’s fours, women’s fours and mixed doubles goes until Friday evening. All franchises will face each other once, with each franchise playing one match per day. 

Saturday’s matches consist of two games of mixed fours, worth one point each. Matchups will be determined by seedings. 

The top four teams qualify for Sunday’s semifinals, with the winners advancing to the championship final.

Match 1: Alpine Curling Club vs. Shield Curling Club — Monday, Noon ET / 9 a.m. PT 

‍Alpine CC 

• The European-based franchise is led by captain Alina Pätz of Switzerland. Paetz, who throws last rocks for skip Silvana Tirinzoni on tour, reached all five Grand Slam of Curling women’s finals this season, winning back-to-back titles at the HearingLife Canadian Open and the Crown Royal Players’ Championship. She earned an Olympic silver medal in Milano Cortina in February and finished runner-up at Swiss nationals a week later. 

• Selina Gafner, 22, is the youngest curler competing in Rock League and had a breakout season on tour with Xenia Schwaller’s Swiss squad, capped with a gold medal at the World Women’s Curling Championship. 

• Oskar Eriksson earned an incredible eighth gold medal at the men’s worlds on Saturday. Eriksson has also excelled at mixed doubles with Almida de Val, winning bronze medals at the worlds in 2021 and the Winter Olympics in 2022. He also earned gold at the mixed doubles worlds in 2019.

‍Shield CC 

• Brad Jacobs captains the Canadian-based franchise. He became the first men’s skip to win a second career Olympic gold medal when he was victorious in Milano Cortina. Jacobs followed that up with a bronze medal at the Brier. 

• The franchise had a recent roster update, adding Olympic bronze medallists Benoit Schwarz-van Berkel and Amos Mosaner. Schwarz-van Berkel earned his medal in men’s play, and Mosaner claimed his in mixed doubles at Milano Cortina.

• Kerri Einarson is expected to skip Shield’s women’s team after winning a fifth Scotties Tournament of Hearts title and earning silver at the women’s worlds.

‍Match 2: Typhoon Curling Club vs. Frontier Curling Club — Monday, 3:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 p.m. PT

Typhoon CC 

• Chinami Yoshida serves as captain for the Asia-Pacific region franchise. The two-time Olympic medallist recently announced her departure from Loco Solare after 12 years on tour with the club, including 11 while playing third with skip Satsuki Fujisawa. 

• Swedish import Anna Hasselborg became the second women’s skip, after compatriot Anette Norberg, to win a second Olympic gold medal in women’s curling. Hasselborg earned her first at PyeongChang 2018 and captured her second at Milano Cortina 2026. 

• Niklas Edin added another gold medal to his legendary haul on Saturday, claiming an eighth world championship. Rock League will present a new challenge for the Swedish skip who has won just about everything the sport has to offer.

Frontier CC 

• Korey Dropkin captains the American-based franchise. Dropkin and Cory Thiesse are flying high after earning silver in Milano Cortina, the first Olympic medal in mixed doubles curling for the United States. The pair also won the mixed doubles world title in 2023 during their first season together. 

• John Shuster is coming off the best tour season of his career, reaching at least the semifinals in all but one event. He recently finished fourth at the men’s worlds. 

• Every women’s player on Frontier competed at the Winter Olympics. As mentioned, Thiesse won silver in mixed doubles and competed in women's play, while Stefania Constantini captured bronze in mixed doubles and also skipped the Italian women’s team on home ice. Sarah Wilkes earned bronze, while Tabitha Peterson and Taylor Anderson-Heide finished fourth, as Canada defeated the U.S. for the third spot on the women’s podium.

Match 3: Maple United vs. Northern United — Monday, 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT

‍Maple United 

• Rachel Homan is the captain for the Canadian-based franchise. She won three consecutive Grand Slam of Curling women’s titles this season and skipped Canada to bronze at the Winter Olympics. 

• Mike McEwen was a late addition to Maple United. McEwen, who has won seven Grand Slam of Curling men’s titles in his career, has some unfinished business at TMU’s Mattamy Athletic Centre. He was a runner-up three times when the venue hosted the Players’ Championship, with all three finals coming down to the last rock of the game. 

• Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman represented Canada at the Winter Olympics in mixed doubles, finishing fifth. Gallant handled double duties in Milano Cortina and captured gold in men’s curling.

Northern United 

• The captain of the European-based franchise is Bruce Mouat of Scotland. He won back-to-back Grand Slam of Curling men’s titles this season at the CO-OP Tour Challenge and KIOTI GSOC Tahoe, defeating Matt Dunstone in both finals. Mouat skipped Great Britain to silver at the Winter Olympics. 

• Versatility will be one of the franchise’s assets as Mouat and Jennifer Dodds play together in mixed doubles, as do Swedish siblings Isabella and Rasmus Wranå, who captured Olympic gold in Milano Cortina. Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller and Norway’s Kristin Skaslien also competed in mixed doubles at the Winter Olympics for their countries, giving Northern United GM Christoffer Svae plenty of options to mix and match.