Rock League Roundup: Maple, Alpine score first wins

TORONTO — Maple United earned its first-ever match win in Rock League after defeating Typhoon Curling Club 2-1 Tuesday afternoon.

Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant led the way, powering the Canadian-based club with a high-scoring 11-5 victory over Tori Koana and Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi in mixed doubles.

Peterman and Gallant stole four points in the opening end and never eased up, hitting for a count of five in the seventh.

"It just felt good to come out and play the way we can," Gallant said. "We played a pretty decent game, our first game. We learned tons about the ice, so just to come out, put what we learned to good use, it felt really good."

The 11 points is a Rock League record for most scored in a single game. Mind you, it's only Day 2 of the inaugural season, but with total points scored used as the tiebreaker in the standings, it's critical to make them all count.

"We want to score as many as we can," Gallant said. "Jocelyn made a real beauty for five in the seventh end. That was a key one for us because we gave up a steal in the sixth, so we just wanted to bounce back with a big end and she made a couple of great shots. Five points, that's great."

Mike McEwen skipped Maple's men's fours team to a 6-3 victory over Typhoon's Niklas Edin.

Maple had the hammer coming home up by two, but Typhoon was sitting a pair of stones in the house, including one that looked like it was close enough to the pin hole that could count for two points. That meant fourth Ross Whyte couldn't afford a jam either just in case that rock ended up covering the pin. No worries, as Whyte executed a perfect double takeout, with his shooter sticking around to tack on another point.

Maple fell short of the sweep though as Typhoon's Anna Hasselborg drew to the four-foot circle with her last shot to score a single and defeat Rachel Homan's crew 6-5 in the women's fours game.

Both franchises hold 1-1 records.

Super spinner fail

You can't even give style points for this one. Peterman and Gallant had shot rock locked in the third end and Peterman attempted to add another with a super-spinner shot.

As they say, there was an attempt.

Peterman is no Edin as her shooter ended up running into the boards, or close to it, for a rare curling gutter ball.

"Oh my gosh, so embarrassing," Peterman said with a laugh. "I haven't actually thrown a lot of them. It's a lot easier to do the super spinner with the in-turn. I just instinctively started it with the in-turn and then realized that it was not going to go well. Thankfully, I think I saved it enough to get it back to the out-turn and get the right turn on, but got her close to the boards for sure."

"We practise that a little bit, but usually with the in-turns," Gallant added. "It's tougher to do with the out. I think she'll be better the next time."

Alpine gets first win, denied first sweep

Alpine Curling Club also earned its first win Tuesday evening, defeating Frontier Curling Club 2-1 in a battle between the two remaining winless franchises.

Joël Retornaz skipped the men's squad to a 7-3 victory while Almida de Val and Oskar Eriksson took the mixed doubles game 8-4.

Alpine evened its record at 1-1 to move up into fourth place in the standings, while Frontier remains at the bottom of the table at 0-2.

"It feels great," Eriksson said. "It's such a fun event and winning is more fun. We have a strong team. We've been a little bit unlucky with the hammers so far the first two games, so coming out with one win is good. We feel like all three teams are playing good, so we're just going to keep building on that and hopefully get a few more Ws."

Despite the opening-event loss to Shield in the Monday noon draw, general manager Eve Muirhead kept the same lineup intact.

"We played well yesterday, so I was confident going in today that we kind of started to build that momentum yesterday," Muirhead said. "People became comfy within their roles and positions, so today it was just about continuing that and just kind of sharpening up in the little parts that we maybe weren't quite as sharp on yesterday, which they did great."

Retornaz scored a deuce in the first and stole two in the third for an early 4-0 lead as Frontier skip Danny Casper was short on his draw. After alternating singles, Casper converted with a deuce in six but the deficit was too much to overcome as Retornaz tacked two more points on the board with the hammer in seven.

Meanwhile, de Val and Eriksson were trailing 3-2 without the hammer in the fifth but poured on the pressure to sit four stones in the four-foot circle. Frontier's Taylor Anderson-Heide and Korey Dropkin were unable to draw in and outcount any of them to give up the huge steal that swung the momentum of the game.

Frontier was limited to just a single in the sixth. Alpine matched with one back in the seventh and stole a point in the eighth.

It seemed like the European-based franchise was in a prime position for the first three-game sweep and score a bonus half point but that didn't come to be as Frontier completed the 8-7 comeback victory in the women's fours game.

Alpine skip and captain Alina Pätz was heating up late, firing a long angle runback from downtown for two points in the fifth and nailing a triple to sit three in the sixth. That turned into a steal of two and a 7-6 lead for Alpine after Frontier's Tabitha Peterson jammed the runback.

Although Alpine was lying two in the seventh, the double was a possibility but the button was also open, and Peterson drew to the pinhole to score two and the victory.

Northern leads the way

It might not have been exactly how Northern United’s Isabella Wranå planned it, but it was the shot she pulled off to secure the victory. 

The match point was on the line as Wranå held the hammer in the seventh end, trailing by two in the women’s fours game against Shield Curling Club, skipped by Kerri Einarson, early Tuesday afternoon. 

After consulting with general manager Christoffer Svae and captain Bruce Mouat, the call was to make the double, with two options available. Whether or not it was the one Wranå intended is moot at this point as she made the wide double count to score three and defeat Shield 5-4. 

That had Northern howling as the European-based club improved to a 2-0 match record with two points to sit at the top of the standings. Northern defeated Maple during the opening day of play on Monday.

“I saw it was there, potentially,” said Wranå, who earned gold in mixed doubles at the Winter Olympics and bronze at the women’s worlds this year. “It's always nice to have extra eyes with (third) Sara (McManus) and Bruce and everyone, so it is great.”

Shield opened the women's game with the hammer and the teams traded singles back and forth through the first four ends. After Wranå hit and rolled too far on her last in the fifth, Einarson drew for a deuce and a 4-2 lead. Wranå blanked the sixth to retain the hammer coming home.

Northern's Giulia Zardini Lacedelli and Rasmus Wranå, Isabella's brother, scored four in the eighth end to defeat Shield's Marlee Powers and Jake Horgan 9-6 in mixed doubles, while Mouat fell in the men's fours game, as his crew lost 5-4 to Shield, skipped by Brad Jacobs.

“I'm very proud of the team we have today,” Isabella said. “We just fought all the way through this game and I feel like the girls played really well, so I'm super happy.”

Shield, which topped Alpine in Rock League's series opener, dropped to 1-1. 

Pin to win

The men's game saw the first "pin to win" moment. Teams receive two points for covering the pin in the seventh end during four-player team games and in the eighth end during mixed doubles games.

Shield third Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel made the come-around draw to land on the lid with his second shot, which held up for the two-pointer as Mouat was unable to remove it during skip stones.