AMJ Masters Finals Takeaways: Canadians finish on top

It was a Canadian sweep of the AMJ Masters finals in London, Ont.

Matt Dunstone started things in the morning with a 6-4 win over Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte in an extra end, earning his second career Grand Slam victory. 

Followed by Rachel Homan, who beat Switzerland’s Team Silvana Tirinzoni 6-4 to capture her 18th Grand Slam championship, the most all-time.

It wasn’t easy for either of the Canadian teams, but in the end, they both pulled through.

Sunday’s results (Full scores and standings)

Draw 21 – Men’s final
Dunstone 6, Whyte 4

Draw 22 – Women’s final
Tirinzoni 6, Homan 4

Men’s final takeaways

It had been 1073 days since Dunstone’s last Grand Slam of Curling final on October 23, 2022. To get his last Slam win, you have to double that and then some, it was 2165 days ago on October 27, 2019.

The good part? His last Slam win – which was also his first Slam win – came in this same tournament.

The bad part? His opponent this year was Whyte, the skip who took down world No. 1 Bruce Mouat in the semifinal to advance to his third straight Masters final, ready to defend his championship from last year.

After a blank in the first end, the second end is where the fun began.

Whyte made a draw many would consider great, burying behind his guard, but for Dunstone, it was exactly what he wanted. Dunstone followed Whyte’s path with his final shot, executing the corner freeze, and tempting Whyte into a shot for two.

Coming up way short, Whyte gave up a steal of one. It was more of the same in the third as Dunstone once again got a steal to be up 2-0.

However, the fourth end is when Whyte and his team came alive. Dunstone made a near-perfect shot with his last stone, coming through two small ports and trying to freeze onto Whyte’s shot stone, but gave a big enough gap for Whyte to do damage. 

Whyte made no mistake, making the short angled runback, and even though he lost the shooter, his team came away with three massive points to take a 3-2 lead into the break.

Dunstone, getting hammer for the first time all game in the fifth end, earned a strategized blank, setting him up to have two ends with hammer in the final three, or so he hoped.

Getting his deuce in the sixth, like he planned, Dunstone took a 4-3 lead into the seventh.

After Whyte blanked the seventh, ruining Dunstone’s strategy, the eighth was set up for fireworks.

Dunstone and his team played a perfect end, leaving Whyte with only a long angled runback into his stone in the top four-foot with his final shot. As always, though, the Scottish skip delivered, sending the game to an extra end.

Whyte and his team had best start to an extra end without the hammer you could possibly have, and looked like a steal to win the game was a real possibility. 

But E.J. Harnden ruined everything for Whyte with one shot and changed the course of the end.

He attempted a long runback on Whyte’s centre line guard, trying to at least get rid of the guard to make the front wide open, but he did even better than that.

He got rid of the guard, rolled his shooter far enough over to not be in the way while he hit two more rocks in the house, one his own and one of Whyte’s. Eliminating both of Whyte’s and keeping his own rock in a perfect position.

From there, Dunstone was set. 

He kept it clean and gave Whyte nowhere to hide, as Dunstone went on to win 6-4, thus ending his drought of winning a Slam.

Women’s final takeaways

153-17. That’s how dominant Homan has been since the start of the 2023-24 season. 

In that time, she has reached nine Slam finals and made it six in a row with Sunday’s Masters finals.

But Sunday’s final would be no cupcake for Homan, as she had to take on Tirinzoni, by far her biggest competitor in the last two seasons. Combined, they’ve made 15 Slam finals since the start of 2023-24. The rest of the GSOC field? Just seven.  

And even though Homan’s record against Tirinzoni coming into Sunday was 5-2 in Slam finals, Tirinzoni took the last meeting at the Players Championship this past April. 

After each team forced the other to a single point in the first two ends, the third end was a different story.

Homan made a great draw with her final stone, sitting two on the button with the front completely blocked, leaving Alina Paetz – throws skip stones for Tirinzoni’s squad – nothing, and I mean nothing. Paetz would make the only shot she had, tapping back one of Homan’s two shot rocks, but gave up a steal of one.

The fourth end, however, was better for Tirinzoni’s squad, as they caught a break from Homan.

With Homan’s last shot, she had a chance at a cross-house double – a hard shot, but one she’s made many times before – but missed the double by a hair, and gave Paetz an open draw for two, giving them a 3-2 lead at the break.

But Homan would strike right back, getting two points in the fifth end to lead 4-3.

Heading to the sixth end, the game was set up to deliver yet another great finish. 

Instead, the sixth end was the knockout blow.

In an end where Tirinzoni’s team couldn’t seem to get ahead, despite having the hammer, Homan’s squad was exceptional.

When Paetz went to throw the final stone of the end, she was facing four (FOUR!) with no friendly rocks in the house. She had little to no chance of making a draw to the button to get the single after Homan put one top 12, making the path a lot wider and harder to draw.

Paetz tried her best, but it wasn’t enough, as she could only beat out two of Homan’s rocks, giving up a steal of two, and was trailing 6-3.

From there, the game was sealed. Homan forced Tirinzoni to a single in the seventh and ran her out of rocks in the eighth, to earn a 6-4 victory.

With the win, Homan is now a five-time Masters champion, the most all-time by a skip.