Our Second Grand Slam Also Ends in the Quarterfinals
Straight after the European Championships, we headed to Canada. We landed in Calgary on Monday at 5:00 p.m. After a three-hour drive to Medicine Hat, we went almost straight to the arena for the official 25-minute practice session on the Grand Slam ice.
To be honest, it wasn't our best practice session. Nevertheless, it was important to get a first feel for the ice and move our legs a little after a long day of travelling.
The tournament started the very next day. In our opening game, we faced the Canadian Team Reese-Hansen. Unfortunately, we made too many mistakes and had to accept a defeat. A significant improvement was needed, and that was exactly what we managed to show in our second game against Team Gray-Withers. With a much better performance, we secured our first win.
In our third game, we faced the very experienced Canadian Team Einarson. It turned into an exciting and closely contested match that came down to the very last stone. Our opponents successfully made their final shot to tie the game at 4–4. This meant the game went to a shootout, which we unfortunately lost. However, thanks to the tie after the regular ends, we still earned an important point that would prove crucial later on.
In our fourth and final round-robin game, we faced Japan's Team Kitazawa. With another victory, we increased our total to seven points and qualified directly for the quarterfinals.
There, we faced Team Kitazawa once again. Unfortunately, we weren't able to build on our better performances from the round robin. Too many mistakes on our side meant that we had to accept defeat. As a result, our second Grand Slam of the season also came to an end in the quarterfinals.
On the one hand, we are pleased to have qualified for the playoffs once again. On the other hand, we are not entirely satisfied with our overall performance throughout the week. We know that we still have plenty of potential and need to become more consistent in several areas.
