Scotland's Mouat looks for third final appearance

Having fun in the bubble.

That sums up Bruce Mouat's time here, three weeks after entering the Calgary curling safe zone.

And why wouldn't the skip from Scotland and his Edinburgh rink be feeling that way?

After all, the wins — and possibly titles — are piling up for them after two major events and two days into the Princess Auto Players' Championship at Winsport.

“We're going to try our best to make the final,” said Mouat of working their way toward the championship draw of this tournament just as they did in the last two spiels at Markin Macphail Centre. “We're having fun here in the bubble, and we've had two competitions that we've played really well in. So why not make our third?”

Of course, Team Mouat was a finalist in the men's world curling championships just over a week ago at Winsport, losing to Sweden's Niklas Edin, who has dominated that tournament, becoming the defending threetime king of the globe. The difference in the 10-5 decision was a five-end final end for Edin.

Then Mouat stayed in the bubble to power through the Humpty's Champions Cup, a Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling feature, to again make the final but this time earning victory — that a

5-2 result over reigning Brier champion Brendan Bottcher of Edmonton. Along the way, the squad from Gogar Park Curling Club defeated both Edin's crew and the fellow super-rink skipped by Calgary's Kevin Koe in the Champions Cup quarter-final and semifinal rounds.

Their winning M.O. has been the comeback, with rallies aplenty during their time in Calgary.

“We're probably experienced enough to know that we're never really out of a competition when we're playing the 5-rock rule,” Mouat said. “We never try and get on each other's back when somebody is missing a shot or is having a bad game — we try to support each other as much as possible. That's exactly what we've done. It's been a really good learning experience for all of us.”

Now here in the Princess Auto Players' Championship — another Pinty's grand slam spiel, which began Tuesday at Winsport — Mouat is again making noise.

In a rematch of the men's worlds final Wednesday morning, Mouat torched Edin. That followed Tuesday's rematch of the Champions Cup finale that saw him score a 9-6 victory over Bottcher, thanks to a count of five in the final end.

Not too shabby.

“We always said we were always just really focused on the worlds when we came out here,” Mouat said. “We never really considered the slams until after we finished that competition. And then after the week we had at the worlds, we knew we were going to be close (at the Champions Cup) and hopefully qualifying for the playoffs.

“And then when you get to the playoffs of the slams, you have to really make sure you're playing well to get that far. So we always thought we could, and I'm glad we're doing it.”

The 2016 world junior king and his crew credit a season unlike few others ahead of breaking into the bubble. COVID-19 simply didn't keep them off the ice like it did elsewhere on the planet.

“We were together nearly every day during COVID,” said the 26-year-old Mouat. “We trained five days a week at the National Curling Academy in Stirling (Scotland). So we were very fortunate that we had ice to go play on and we got to see each other a lot.

“We knew we had that advantage coming into the worlds. Obviously, Bottcher's team had practice at the Brier and the (Canadian) mixed doubles, so we knew they would be tough. But it was kind of an unknown for the other international teams.”