By Greg Higgins - battlefordsNOW

Lethbridge’s Scheidegger wins Meridian Canadian Open

Jan 9, 2017 | 4:50 AM

No one knew much about Team Scheidegger from Lethbridge at the start of the Meridian Canadian Open, but they sure know who the team is now, as the newly-minted Grand Slam champions.

Skip Casey Scheidegger, competing in her first Grand Slam, and her team are the talk of the curling world after beating Silvana Tirinzoni from Switzerland 5-4.

“It’s amazing,” Scheidegger said. “We are so excited. We’re thrilled we were able to pull that out. Mabye not the way we’d like to win. I would have liked to make my last shot to win but sometimes it doesn’t happen like that.”

To call this an exciting game would be an understatement, as both teams went rock for rock in the first end with Tirinzoni taking a point with the hammer for the early 1-0 lead. Tirinzoni continued the momentum into the second end by burying a stone on the button with a guard in the house for two. Scheidegger was only able to remove one stone and Tirinzoni stole a point.

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Tirinzoni then went onto the defensive in the third, forcing Scheidegger to take one point, to give her a 2-1 advantage heading into the fourth with the hammer and a chance to extend her lead.

Scheidegger had a few tricks up her sleeve too, stealing one in the fourth to tie it up 2-2 before the half way mark. The Alberta team wasn’t done yet. They stole another point in the fifth in what was one of the most exiting ends of the game as both teams made numerous amazing draws between guards, as if the rocks had eyes.

Tirinzoni came back in the sixth. She drew for one with the hammer and it took a measurement, but she ended up with two by less than a centimetre and regained the lead 4-3. 

Things really started to heat up when Scheidegger took one point in the seventh making it a tie game heading into the final frame.

With Scheidegger lying one, all Trinzoni had to do was draw to the button and the trophy was hers. The Swiss skip came up a few inches short though giving Scheidegger the steal and the win.