Olympic curling trials begin with a roar in Saskatoon

The pressure-packed nature of the 2021 Tim Hortons Curling Trials at SaskTel Centre certainly lived up to the hype on opening day Saturday.

Day 1 was filled with upsets, world-class shots and the usual roar from the crowds these curlers have missed so much the past two years.

Jacqueline Harrison claimed the win of the day by defeating defending champion Rachel Homan 6-5 in her debut at Canada’s biggest curling event.

Tracy Fleury opened with a 7-4 win over two-time reigning national champion Kerri Einarson.

The final Draw 1 games saw Jennifer Jones top Krista McCarville 8-5 and Casey Scheidegger defeat Laura Walker 6-4.

The men took over in Draw 2, where perennial contender Brad Gushue managed to score three in the 10th end for a 6-4 win over Brendan Bottcher. That ended up being the only close game as defending champion Kevin Koe hammered Brad Horgan 9-2, Brad Jacobs dumped John Epping 9-3 and Mike McEwen beat hometown hopeful Matt Dunstone 7-2.

Team Dunstone

Dunstone was unable to stem the bleeding in his team’s game after missing an open peel attempt to blank the first end. McEwen got the steal and a bundle of confidence throughout the rest of the game.

Anytime Dunstone made a great shot to potentially put up points, McEwen one-upped him and made an even better shot, showing the narrow margins curlers have to combat at the trials.

“It’s going to happen in a field like this. There’s nine world-class skips here and Mikey showed that tonight,” Dunstone said following the game.

McEwen ended up throwing 92 per cent, routinely capitalizing on missed shots from Dunstone and his teammates throwing a couple of stones clean through the house which ended up being the difference.

“I didn’t hate how we played at all. Obviously, we had a couple of misses here and there. First game, trying to get used to the ice, that sort of thing,” Dunstone said.