AMJ Masters Playoff Takeaways: Whyte defeats fellow countryman Mouat, advances to final

The finals are set after an eventful day in London, Ont.

There will be a new champion crowned on the women’s side at this year’s AMJ Masters, while on the men’s side, Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte has the chance to defend his title.

Canada will have representatives in both finals — Matt Dunstone, looking for his second Masters title and the world No. 1 Rachel Homan, playing in her sixth straight Grand Slam of Curling final.

Facing Homan will be Switzerland’s Team Silvana Tirinzoni, who kept her undefeated season going to reach the final, defeating both Switzerland’s Team Xenia Schwaller and Korea’s Team Gim Eun-ji.

Saturday’s results (Full scores and standings)

Draw 17 – Men’s tiebreakers
Jacobs 5, McEwen 2
Y. Schwaller 7, Edin 5

Draw 18 – Men’s quarterfinals
Jacobs 4, Retornaz 3
Mouat 3, Epping 2
Whyte 6, Y. Schwaller 5
Dunstone 6, Ramsfjell 3

Draw 19 – Women’s quarterfinals
Wrana 8, Hasselborg 3
Gim 7, Kim 0
Homan 6, Tabata 4 (EE)
Tirinzoni 5, Schwaller 4 (EE)

Draw 20 – Men’s and Women’s semifinals
Dustone 6, Jacobs 5
Whyte 6, Mouat 5
Tirinzoni 6, Gim 3
Homan 7, Wrana 5

Best match

Scotland’s finest didn’t disappoint.

In an all-Scotland semifinal between world No. 1 Bruce Mouat vs. world No. 4 Ross Whyte, the stakes couldn’t have been higher.

Whyte, who started with the hammer, didn’t waste it and grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the first end. After Whyte forced Mouat to a single in the third end, it looked like Mouat had done the exact same thing to Whyte in the Fourth, if not, maybe even a steal.

Whyte, however, wasn’t willing to settle for just one, and he didn’t care about the risk of giving up a steal, he wanted more. He attempted an insane runback where he would move four rocks, three being Mouat’s, and somehow ended up scoring another deuce, giving us the first great shot of the game. 

Up 4-1 at the break, Whyte looked to be cruising into the final.

But that’s when all the momentum switched in Mouat’s favour. 

Sitting one, with an open draw for two, Mouat elected to risk the biscuit and go for three, needing to make a long angled runback with soft enough weight to keep the shooter around. The Stirling native made it look easy, too easy, scoring his three to tie the game 4-4.

After a blank in the sixth, Whyte tried to switch the momentum back in his favour with a shot for three himself. He didn’t make it, and instead gave up a steal of one, giving Mouat the lead for the first time all game as they headed into the final end.

Whyte wasn’t done there, as he made a perfect draw with his first stone to sit shot rock while burying it behind his own guard. Mouat knew he just needed to eliminate the rock in the house to get the force, so he tried the runback. However, he jammed the rock and left an open hit for Whyte to win the game, which he made and advanced to the final with a 6-5 win.

It was also Whyte’s third straight win against Mouat.

Best shot

Playing skip isn’t for everyone. 

I mean, sure, the skip’s name is on the scoreboard and is the most famous person on the team, just like a quarterback in the NFL. 

But, just like playing quarterback, the skip has the most pressure to make their shots every end, especially in the final one.

Down 4-2 in the eighth end against Tirinzoni, Xenia Schwaller was left with a tricky double takeout on her final shot, and needed to stick around to score two and force an extra end.

Calm, cool and collected, Schwaller got into the hack and slid out with confidence, and it was a beauty. She hit a quarter of Tirinzoni’s rock to roll over and make the double while also sticking around, giving her team a chance in the extra end.

Without the hammer in the extra, Schwaller and her team did all they could, but it wasn’t enough to get the win as they lost 5-4.

Best sweep

We’ve all heard the term ‘throw it to your sweepers,’ right?

Well, it’s even easier for Italy’s Team Joel Retornaz to do that when he has a front end of Sebastiano Arman and Amos Mosaner that can do wonders with the rock. 

With Retornaz’s final shot in the third end versus Brad Jacobs, he needed to grab at least half of the four-foot with a draw to get his single point. Jacobs, however, made the draw a lot harder with his last shot, placing one top-eight buried behind a guard, making the draw path a lot wider for Retornaz.

With no choice but to place the broom in the middle of the 12-foot, Retornaz had to rely on Arman and Mosaner to sweep hard and get enough curl. 

Of course, it was no problem for Arman and Mosaner, as they got the job done to get the point.

Top team

Instead of highlighting just one player, this has to go to the whole team because Jacobs really needed to run the table on Saturday to reach the Masters final. 

First, starting in the tiebreaker at 8 a.m. ET against fellow Canadian team Mike McEwen, Jacobs and his team handled business, running McEwen out of rocks in the eighth end to win 5-2.

From there, it was a quick turnaround for the defending Brier champion. The Alberta team would have to play just over an hour after their game ended at 11:30 a.m. ET against Retornaz’s team, but once again came out on top with a 4-3 win.

With the win, it set up a semifinal match against a familiar foe, Matt Dunstone, a rematch of last year’s Brier final. 

The match was electric as at times both teams looked to have the other on the ropes, but each team would make a great shot to get them out of trouble. After Jacobs was lucky to get a single point in the eighth, it needed an extra end to decide the result.

Jacobs would fall 6-5 to Dunstone in extras, thus ending the chance of a Masters final rematch against Whyte. 

AMJ Masters playoff coverage continues Sunday at 11:30 a.m. ET/ 8:30 a.m. PT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.

Sunday’s featured matches on Sportsnet are:

Men’s final: Scotland’s Whyte vs. Canada’s Dunstone 11 a.m. ET/ 8:30 a.m. PT
Women’s final: Switzerland’s Tirinzoni vs. Canada’s Homan 3:30 p.m. ET/ 12:30 p.m. PT