CALGARY — Rachel Homan's curling team repeated as the PointsBet Invitational women's champion Sunday and continued its hot streak to start the season.
The reigning world champion defeated Kayla Skrlik 8-3 in the final at Calgary's WinSport Arena, where Homan had also won a national women's title in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts seven months earlier.
"I'm going to hope for more events to come back here," the skip said.
Homan, vice Tracy Fleury and front end Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes won all four of their games in the single-knockout PointsBet to claim $50,000 in prize money a second straight year, and improve to 12-0 to start the season.
"This event is awesome. It's been great to us in the last couple years," Homan said. "Team played really well and really proud of playing a really solid game out there."
Brad Gushue and Mike McEwen were to meet in the men's final Sunday in a rematch of the Canadian men's curling championship final.
Homan's No. 1 team in the women's world rankings stole single points in the second and third ends, and stole another three in the seventh Sunday. Skrlik shook hands after eight ends.
"We're kind of starting off knowing what worked well last year and bringing that forward," Wilkes said.
Each of the 32 teams in the field received $5,000 to defray travel costs. A quarterfinal victory was worth $3,000, a semifinal $12,000 and the final $24,000.
The PointsBet's hook is the single knockout format and the chance of a big upset because under-25, university, college, junior and club champions are in the field alongside the top teams in Canada.
Jordan McDonald's 13th-seeded men's team that won last month's national under-25 championship toppled No. 6 Reid Carruthers and No. 5 Kevin Koe before taking Gushue the distance in the semifinal.
But it was Canadian junior women's champion Allyson MacNutt producing the shock of the tournament by ousting four-time Canadian champion Kerri Einarson in the round of 16.
"It makes you play under pressure right away," Wilkes said. "That's never a bad thing, having to play under pressure.
The PointsBet's lighter schedule gave Homan some mentorship time on and off the ice with MacNutt, who will represent Canada in the 2025 world junior championship.
"I kind of put my hand up to help out," the skip said. "There's a lot of next gen teams here.
"Went really well, and hoping to connect with them kind of throughout the season, and help them on their journey to worlds."
Skrlik's 10th-seeded team from Calgary beat Ontario provincial champion Danielle Inglis, No. 2 seed Chelsea Carey and sixth seed Kate Cameron to reach the final.
The skip missed a pair of angle raise attempts in the seventh to give up the steal of three.
"I'd like to take back some of my shots in the earlier ends and rethrow them and I think it would have been a much closer game, but we got down on Rachel a little bit early, and it's really hard to battle back against that team," said the 27-year-old Skrlik, whose team includes vice Margot Flemming, her sister Ashton and Geri-Lynn Ramsay.
"This is the farthest we've gone into this event, and we're the number 10 seed. It surpassed all of our expectations. We've played Rachel twice now this season, which is sort of a lot considering it's September.
"We know if we're lining up against Rachel we're doing something right."
Skrlik has reached the finals in three of four events to start the season.
The fourth edition of the PointsBet returns to Calgary in 2025 from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5 at WinSport Arena.
Homan and Skrlik both head to the first Grand Slam of the season, the HearingLife Tour Challenge, starting Tuesday in Charlottetown.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2024.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press