Roundup: Alpine triumphs over Northern to complete first sweep

TORONTO — It was a day of firsts for Rock League as Alpine Curling Club completed the first-ever 3-0 sweep in its match over Northern United on Wednesday afternoon. 

After a decisive 8-3 victory in the men’s game and a 4-3 win on the women’s side, it came down to another league debut as Almida de Val drew for a piece of the button in the first shootout to secure the 8-7 mixed doubles win. 

Alpine earned a bonus half point for the three-game sweep that helped vault them into first place in the standings. The franchise holds a 2-1 record and 2.5 match points after losing the season-opener Monday to Shield Curling Club and bouncing back with a win over Frontier Curling Club on Tuesday night.

Northern (2-1) entered the day as the lone undefeated team and is now third.

Captain Alina Pätz, who skips Alpine's women’s team, said it felt amazing to make Rock League history — even if it’s only the third day of the inaugural season. 

“Our game was so close,” she said. “It was a back-and-forth game. I just got a little lucky at the end, but it was a well-played game, well-played round. I think we are just piling up and getting better and better each day.” 

It was a bit of a slow start but a strong finish for Alpine's women's team.

Northern’s Isabella Wranå started with the hammer, but opted to concede a point in the first as Pätz stole to open the scoring.

Wranå recovered with an open hit for two in the second to take the lead. Pätz had the tying point in her pocket in the third and was looking to add another, however, she wrecked on a guard and had to settle for just the single. 

Alpine jumped ahead 4-2 with back-to-back steals as Wranå’s last in the fourth flew by the shot rock and her angle raise in the fifth connected but took out her own stone too, with her raised stone rolling away as well, to surrender another point. 

Alpine poured on the pressure in the sixth with six rocks touching the paint, but Wranå drew cooly right to the button for her single point. That handed the hammer over to Alpine for the final end, and Pätz pulled off the double takeout to clear the deck. 

“It was great. We actually struggled a bit in the first half. I think they outplayed us, but we managed to stay in the game,” Pätz said. “It was just very important for us to switch the hammer right away in the first end, and that helped obviously. 

“I think in the second half we outplayed them in almost every end, and I think we deserved that win.”

Alpine’s Joël Retornaz counted three in the first and had Northern’s Bruce Mouat chasing from there in the men’s game.

Trailing 4-1 after three, Mouat attempted tricky runbacks in four and five that led to back-to-back single steals. Mouat kept grinding away — as total points scored count toward tiebreakers in the standings — and tapped for two in the sixth. Retornaz matched with a deuce in the seventh for added insurance.

De Val and Oskar Eriksson took the lead late in the mixed doubles game, capitalizing on the power play in the sixth end. De Val ran back Northern’s guard to remove the counter hiding on the button, spilling both away to score a huge count of four and a 6-4 advantage.

Northern’s Giulia Zardini Lacedelli missed a runback in seven to give up a steal, but was able to tie it up with a three-ender in the eighth. Zardini Lacedelli was actually looking to hit and roll to the pin to get the two-point bonus and win the game, however, her shooter landed right on the nose.

That pushed it to the shootout, with Zardini Lacedelli firing first. Her shooter looked heavy as sweeper Rasmus Wranå backed off, landing at the back of the four-foot circle and giving de Val a bit of breathing room for her to make her shot.

Frontier defeats Maple for first win 

Frontier is in the win column after edging Maple United 2-1 in Wednesday’s late-afternoon match.

Taylor Anderson-Heide and captain Korey Dropkin topped Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant 10-6 in mixed doubles, while Danny Casper skipped the men’s squad to an 8-5 victory over the Mike McEwen-led Maple lineup.

Rachel Homan denied the sweep as she drew for four points in the fifth end and nailed a double takeout to count two in the seventh during a 7-3 win in the women’s game over Frontier’s Tabitha Peterson. 

“Oh, it feels great,” Dropkin said. “Nice for just the team as a whole to put it together. Our ladies have been kind of carrying us the first couple draws and they've been playing amazing. Obviously they had a tough feat ahead of them today with Rachel’s team being so strong, but it's nice to be able to kind of pick up our pace of the game on the mixed doubles and the men's side.” 

Anderson-Heide and Dropkin jumped out to an early 3-0 lead with a deuce in the first followed by an unexpected steal in the second as Peterman misfired the double raise and moved her own stone off the button.

Maple recovered with a draw for three to tie it in the third, but Frontier took two in the fourth and stole two in the fifth to lead 7-3 as Peterman’s raise missed the mark. Although Maple called the power play in the sixth, Frontier snuffed a multiple-point score as Peterman drew for just a single point. Frontier added another count of three in the seventh, and Maple took two in the eighth. 

Dropkin is playing with Anderson-Heide as Cory Thiesse shifted over to the women's team to fill in for Stefania Constantini, who is away for the next couple of days due to a prior commitment. Thiesse is throwing third for Peterson, with super spare Linda Stenlund at Anderson-Heide's usual position of lead.

“The captain here has been slacking a little bit on those Ws, so it's nice to kind of get back in the swing of things, help Taylor feel a little bit more comfortable out there and make some shots today. Brett and Joce are a great team, but I always love matching up against those two,” said Dropkin, who earned a silver medal at the Winter Olympics in mixed doubles with Thiesse. 

“It really looked like our men were starting to feel it out there too, Danny skipping and Grant (Hardie) being a good voice for him in the house, but it's been a great format. We love seeing the people between the sheets getting riled up. We love seeing the banana peels out there, so it's a fun atmosphere.”

Meanwhile, Casper broke a 1-all tie in the third with an open hit for three. After singles back and forth, Maple fourth Ross Whyte made a crisp and clean cross-house double to score three in the sixth to tie it up. Casper completed a takeout with the last rock of the game to secure the win, adding three points on the board for good measure.

"Yes, long time coming, three days, but no, it was good," lead John Shuster said with a smile. "I think the four of us that have played all the games in men's together are just kind of getting used to the way everybody throws a rock and having some fun out there, but also now I feel like we're hand-placing draws and making great line calls on hits. When you do that, you end up being a really good curling team like we were today."

After going down 0-2 to start the inaugural season of Rock League, the team stuck around the arena after their match Tuesday night for some much-needed extra practice. Dropkin believes they’re definitely starting to come together now. 

“Any time you have a big twist of lineup and dynamic on a team, you go through kind of a forming and a norming process and it's as simple as that. It's just trying to get your feel out there and make it as smooth as possible. We've obviously struggled a little bit the first couple sessions out on the ice, but all that really matters is just refocusing to the next day and the next game," he said.

“It was nice while maybe some of those other teams were out at the Jays game. We were able to get 15 minutes on the ice, maybe not an hour like Maple the morning before, but 15 minutes is 15 minutes of extra rocks being able to throw and get comfortable on this ice and go through the dynamics and the communication that it takes to get comfortable being in a new team format.”

The match victory wasn't enough for Frontier to escape the basement as the franchise is tied at 1-2 with Maple and Shield, but is slotted last based on total points scored.

Typhoon tops Shield on Takeover Night 

With their fans in the stands for Typhoon Takeover Night, the Asia-Pacific region franchise gave them something to cheer for. 

Typhoon Curling Club took the match 2-1 over Shield, winning 9-6 in the men’s game and 7-6 in mixed doubles. 

The franchise was behind on the scoreboard in both games. Typhoon trailed in the men’s game early as skip Niklas Edin wrecked on a guard in the first end to give up a steal of two. 

The team regrouped quickly, with an open hit for a deuce in the second to tie it. After Shield skip Brad Jacobs was held to a single in the third, Edin made a tap to score four in the fourth to lead 6-3 and never trailed again.

Shield took two in the fifth, and Edin elected to concede a point in the sixth to tie it but retain the hammer for the seventh end. The eight-time world champion just had to make a tiny slash on his last to count three points.

The mixed doubles game was a seesaw affair. The teams alternated deuces to start, and Shield’s Marlee Powers and Jake Horgan stole one in the third to pull ahead 3-2.

The teams exchanged singles in four and five then deuces were wild again in six and seven as Shield held a 6-5 lead heading into the final frame. Tori Koana and Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi managed to make a hit for two on their last to finish the thriller on top. 

“It feels great,” Typhoon general manager J.D. Lind said. “Some exciting games. The mixed doubles game was close the whole way. The men gave up a steal of two in the first and came all the way back to win it. So yeah, it was a great night for sure.” 

Typhoon’s women’s team, skipped by Anna Hasselborg, lost 10-7 to Shield, skipped by Kerri Einarson. 

Einarson had an open draw for three in the first end after Hasselborg wrecked on a guard, and made a chip shot for four points in the third for an early 7-2 lead. 

Hasselborg’s raise rock in the fourth redirected and removed her own stone to give up a steal of two and put the game well out of reach. The two-time Olympic gold medallist Hasselborg recovered with a great raise double for two points in the fifth end. 

Einarson added a single in the sixth to reach double-digits on the scoreboard, and Hasselborg counted three in the seventh to at least pad the franchise’s total points scored. 

Typhoon (2-1) is second in the standings and tied for the league lead with 57 total points scored, nine more than Northern United.