Casper completes clean sweep, but curling playoffs await

DULUTH — Daniel Casper skipped his four-man curling team to an unbeaten record through seven matches at the USA Curling Men’s & Women’s Nationals.

But after shaking hands early with Korey Dropkin and his team on Friday after putting them away 9-3 in just six ends, he and the other teams in Saturday’s playoffs have only earned a ticket out of the proverbial frying pan and into the fire.

Still, as the only squad, men’s or women’s, to finish the round-robin without a loss, the Briarcliff Manor, New York native curling out of Chaska admitted, “It’s hard not to feel good right now.”

Casper and Dropkin were guaranteed to meet in the 1 vs. 2 match in Saturday’s playoffs regardless, with the winner of that one going straight into Sunday’s championship. Casper’s rink quickly extinguished the remaining drama with a three in the first end, and after getting the hammer (last-shot advantage) back for the fourth end already up 4-1, put another three on the board.

Nearby, Team Shuster had some work to do to book a place in the top four. While they were locked in a low-scoring battle with Team Sampson, much of the work was done for them on another rink. Team Hodek knocked off Team Sinnett 9-8, ensuring Shuster would have the third seed Saturday. Team Sampson scored three in the 10th to send their match to an extra end, but Shuster scored one in the 11th to finish off the 6-5 win and send Sampson and Sinnett into an eye-opener 7:30 a.m. tiebreaker match on Saturday morning.

Team Shuster (5-2) will play the survivor of that one at noon, with the winner of that one facing the loser of the Casper-Dropkin rematch at night for the second place in the final.

“I think the main thing to take into a playoffs at a Nationals is a lot of people think at a national championship there’s some secret or key thing you’ve got to do in the playoffs to win it all. Realistically, I think the secret is accepting the fact there isn’t one,” Casper said.

The Duluth-based rink of Team Courtney Benson (including Aileen Geving, Lexi Daly and Sara Olson) also has an early wake-up call on Saturday, as they’re in a 7:30 a.m. tiebreaker. Team Peterson put them there, rallying from 6-4 down with two ends to go to win their match 8-6 on Friday night.

Team Peterson will face the Team McMakin squad that handed them their only loss in the tournament so far in the 1 vs. 2 playoff on Saturday at noon after both teams finished 6-1 overall.

The New Hampshire-based Team Cousins took third in the standings at 5-2 and will face the winner of Team Benson and Team Johnson in the elimination game right after their sunrise showdown.