American Curling Team Snaps Swiss Streak

Fans of streamed curling coverage were in heaven over the weekend as two more Canadian events wrapped up North America’s start to the 2026-27 curling season.

At the StuSells Tankard in Oakville, Ont., Swiss teams – following their sweep of events in Baden and at Stirling, Scotland and at Kitchener-Waterloo – captured more cash, particularly on the women’s side.

Alina Paetz defeated world champ Xenia Schwaller 6-4 for the title, after Paetz had beaten another Swiss team skipped by Corie Huerlimann in the semifinals. Schwaller upended Ontario’s Sherry Middaugh in the other semi.

Quarterfinal winnings went to Italy’s Giulia Zardini Lacadelli, Alberta’s Kayla Skrlik, and Ontario’s Grace Lloyd and Carly Howard.

On the men’s side, U.S. Olympic rep Danny Casper won the trophy with a 9-5 victory over Winnipeg’s Jordon McDonald. The Manitobans had defeated USA’s Caden Hebert in one semi, while Casper eliminated Brendan Bottcher of Edmonton in the other.

First stones of the season were thrown by the Brier champion Matt Dunstone team, now featuring longtime Brad Gushue third Mark Nichols at second stone. The new Team Dunstone wound up at 4-3 on the weekend, and lost a C qualifier to the new John Shuster outfit by a 6-3 count on the Sunday night.

The men’s quarterfinalists were Shuster, Scotland’s Kyle Waddell, Italy’s Joel Retornaz and Marco Hoesli of Switzerland.

At Edmonton’s Saville Shootout, Kerri Einarson’s new-look Canadian champions made the women’s playoffs but lost 6-5 in the quarterfinals to homeowners Serena Gray-Withers, who had the freshly retired Kaitlyn Lawes filling in.

Gray-Withers went on to edge fellow Edmontonian Selena Sturmay in the Monday afternoon final by a 6-5 scoreline. Gray-Withers took out BC’s Taylor Reese-Hansen in one semifinal, while Sturmay defeated Korea’s Eun-ji Gim in the other semi.

In addition to Einarson, Japan’s Miku Nihira, Saskatchewan’s Skylar Ackerman and Edmonton’s Abby Desormeau all cashed playoff cheques.

On the Saville men’s side, Kevin Koe’s new-look Brier finalists fell 6-4 in the quarterfinals to BC’s Mitchell Kopytko, who in turn dropped their semifinal to BC veteran Jim Cotter. 

Team Cotter then lost the final 5-4 to the Benny Kapp squad in the final, after the German team dispatched Edmonton’s Zach Davis in the other semi.

The other men’s quarterfinalists were Alberta’s Evan Van Amsterdam and Jaxon Hiebert, plus Tyler Tardi’s “Green Machines” (the former Mike McEwen mates).

Apart from other events in Wisconsin, USA and Kitami in Japan, the season’s first major mixed doubles tournament was hosted in Talinn, Estonia.

Norway’s Eilin Kjaerland and Mathias Braenden took the tile, beating current world silver medallists Therese Westman and Robin Ahlberg of Sweden 11-4 in the final.

Bronze went to the sibling duo of Maia and Magnus Ramsfjell, who defeated Latvia’s Katrina Gaidule and Roberts Buncis 8-5.