Rock League Roundup: Shield, Typhoon and Northern win on debut

TORONTO — Shield Curling Club will go down in the record books as the winner of the first match in Rock League history.

The all-new professional curling league, featuring six franchises with five men’s athletes and five women’s athletes each, made its highly anticipated debut Monday at TMU Mattamy Athletic Centre, with Shield Curling Club taking on Alpine Curling Club in the debut match.

Franchises face off in three games – men’s fours, women’s fours and mixed doubles – during the round-robin stage. The franchise that takes two of the three games earns one point, with a franchise receiving a bonus half point if they win all three. 

After Alpine captain Alina Pätz skipped her women's fours squad to an 8-4 victory, Shield’s Carole Howald and Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel evened up the match with a 6-4 win over Alpine’s Almida de Val and Oskar Eriksson in mixed doubles. 

It all came down to the men’s fours contest, with Shield captain Brad Jacobs hold off Alpine’s Joël Retornaz 9-4 to secure the first victory for his franchise. 

“Yeah, it feels nice,” Jacobs said. “It feels nice for the whole team. I know our girls didn't win today, but I think they did a lot of learning, which is good. That's really what this is going to come down to, especially in this first Rock League event, is how quickly a 10-person squad can learn and communicate and just come together and help one another in order to make shots, put points on the board.

“It feels good to get that first win and have the day off. We were the first draw here as well … I saw players from other teams watching today, probably taking note of a few things that were going on, keeping in mind the new and different rules is important at all times out there. But I think we did a really good job of that and collectively coming together as a team.” 

Jacobs didn’t get out to an ideal start as he had to take on a tricky angle raise in the first end that missed Alpine’s shot rock to give up a steal. After settling for a tying single while facing four counters in the second, Jacobs hit and rolled too far on his last in the third, which allowed Retornaz to draw for a deuce and a 3-1 lead. 

Shield bounced back big time in the fourth end, capped with a draw from Jacobs to score four critical points. 

After singles back and forth, Retornaz held the hammer in the seventh and final end, but needed to draw to the button and cover the pin for a tying two points. Retornaz was light of the rings though, as Jacobs tacked three more points on the board. 

Four-player team games are played to seven ends, with 21 minutes of thinking time, as Rock League is aiming for a two-hour broadcast window. Jacobs said the seven-end format was good and the time clocks were less of an issue than he thought it would be. Another unique aspect is a bar down the middle of the ice between the sheets, with fans able to get up close to the action.

“I think the one thing to note is it feels like the fans don't really know who to cheer for yet, but that's draw one and they're certainly going to figure that out. There were a couple of cheers out there for good shots and whatnot,” Jacobs said. “I think the setup is really cool, with people being able to access centre ice. I think that's neat, so yeah, overall I think it was a good first draw.”

Shield Curling Club lineup

Men's Fours: Brad Jacobs (fourth/skip), Amos Mosaner (third), Jake Horgan (scecond/vice skip), Dan Marsh (lead) 
Women's Fours: Kerri Einarson (fourth/skip), Tracy Fleury (third/vice skip), Agnes Knochenhauer (second), Marlee Powers (lead) 
Mixed Doubles: Carole Howald and Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel

Alpine Curling Club lineup

Men's Fours: Joël Retornaz (fourth/skip), Marc Muskatewitz (third/vice skip), Sven Michel (second, Hammy McMillan Jr. (lead)
Women's Fours: Alina Pätz (fourth/skip), Selina Gafner (third), Emma Miskew (second/vice skip), Sofia Scharback (lead)
Mixed Doubles: Almida de Val and Oskar Eriksson

Howald shines for Shield

Howald held the hammer coming home in the mixed doubles game and pulled off a double takeout to score the winning two points. 

"That's pretty exciting," Howald said. "I mean, it's just something new. You don't really know what to expect from your own team, but also from the opponents. I think it's just great team dynamics. I'm pretty sure that we are one of the best teams who have a good team dynamic, so that helps for sure. Can't wait to play the next one." 

The game could have gone either way as it looked like Alpine was gaining momentum. After Alpine stole one in the fifth to tie it 3-3, it looked like Shield was going to give up another in the sixth, but Howald nudged the pile to somehow bump her team's stone up and in for shot rock.

Howald made another game-saver in the seventh to hit and roll over on top of Alpine's rock. De Val was unable to remove it from play, settling for a tying single that handed over the hammer to Shield for the final frame.

“Of course it's fun and I actually like to start to play the opener,” Schwarz-van Berkel said. “Everyone was I think a bit nervous to see what's going to happen and how the format is going to work out, so it was exciting.”

Shot of the season contender already?

Alpine pulled away early in the women's fours game against Shield, skipped by Kerri Einarson, with Pätz pulling off an early shot of the season contender, even though the season just started.

Pätz broke a 2-all tie in the third end with a thin cross-house double to score four points. 

Einarson had to make a tough come-around tap in the fourth but couldn’t move the Alpine rock far enough, as Pätz stole one to hold a 7-2 lead. The deficit was too much for Shield to overcome with just singles on the board from there.

No rest for the world’s best 

From Ogden, Utah, to Toronto, Swedish skip Niklas Edin was back on the ice less than 48 hours after capturing his record-extending eighth gold medal at the World Men’s Curling Championship.

Edin was at the helm of Typhoon Curling Club’s men’s fours team, skipping them to 7-2 victory Monday afternoon over Frontier Curling Club. 

Typhoon was also victorious 10-3 in mixed doubles to win the match, but fell short of the sweep as Frontier took the women’s fours game 7-3. 

Fatigue? Edin said he feels great, actually. 

“To finish off the season with an event like this, I think it's just good timing, I guess, because you kind of feel like you're really tired and exhausted after an event like worlds,” Edin said. “To play another team event, kind of a Slam type event, it would have been really exhausting.

"I'm not sure if we would have been ready to play well again this tight after, but this type of event you just get a lot of good energy and obviously playing with a lot of people that are just hyped up to be here. Our team vibe is going great, so that was a lot of fun. Hopefully we can keep the energy up.” 

Upon arriving in Toronto, Edin found time to pay a visit to his familiar watering hole across the street, Mick E Fynn's, and the pool shark has already been cleaning up at the tables. 

“We were there last night actually,” Edin said matter-of-factly. “Had some chicken fingers, had a little bit of a team meeting because we got in late, me and (Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi) got in like at 5 p.m., so all the others had their dinners. We just kind of met up, talked through a little bit about what to expect here. Played a little bit of pool too, won a couple of games, so that was good.”

Typhoon Curling Club lineup

Men's Fours: Niklas Edin (fourth/skip), Bobby Lammie (third), Dexin Ba (second), Anton Hood (lead) 
Women's Fours: Anna Hasselborg (fourth/skip), Chinami Yoshida (third/vice skip), Min-ji Kim (second), Ye-eun Seol (lead) 
Mixed Doubles: Tori Koana and Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi

Frontier Curling Club lineup

Men's Fours: John Shuster (fourth/skip), Grant Hardie (third/vice skip), Danny Casper (second), Colin Hufman (lead)
Women's Fours: Stefania Constantini (fourth/skip), Tabitha Peterson (third/vice skip), Sarah Wilkes (second), Taylor Anderson-Heide (lead)
Mixed Doubles: Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin

Skaslien, Schwaller lift Northern over Maple

Northern United also defeated Maple United 2-1 in the evening match to wrap up the opening day of play.

"It's awesome," said Northern United captain Bruce Mouat. "It's been a very exciting buildup to this event. Obviously after the Olympics it's been really nice to kind of focus on another thing and for it to finally be here, it feels great and to win our first one against a very tough Maple United team, it's thrilling to be a part of. 

Maple captain Rachel Homan was victorious over Northern's Isabella Wranå 9-4 in the women's game, while Mouat doubled up on Maple's Mike McEwen 8-4 on the men's side.

Both franchises then congregated for the finish of the mixed doubles game, as Kristin Skaslien made the high-pressure tap to earn a 5-4 victory with Yannick Schwaller over Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant.

"That got exciting in the end," Schwaller said. "Two games on the line, we needed to score in both, and it's ours. We were one-point down already, so that was super cool to be part of, (with the) team lining up. We have a great chemistry so far. We really enjoy ourselves with the whole team and squad, and I hope that continues like this."

"You're kind of keeping an eye on all the other sheets, and it's quite exciting just to be a part of that kind of team, full team vibe," Mouat added. "Just so thrilled that we managed to get two wins out of the three, and yeah, great shot from Kristin in the mixed doubles there to win that game, so very happy."

Northern United lineup

Men's Fours: Bruce Mouat (fourth/skip), Robin Brydone (third/vice skip), Rasmus Wranå (second), Martin Sesaker (lead)
Women's Fours: Isabella Wranå (fourth/skip), Sara McManus (third/vice skip), Jennifer Dodds (second), Giulia Zardini Lacedelli (lead) 
Mixed Doubles: Kristin Skaslien and Yannick Schwaller

Maple United lineup

Men's Fours: Ross Whyte (fourth), Colton Flasch (third/vice skip), Tanner Horgan (second), Mike McEwen (lead/skip) 
Women's Fours: Rachel Homan (fourth/skip), Xenia Schwaller (third/vice skip), Maria Larsson (second), Karlee Burgess (lead) 
Mixed Doubles: Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant

Rock League basics

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.