Mouat’s men back on cup track

Bruce Mouat and his Scottish squad are back in the win column at the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling.

The defending champs opened the KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup with consecutive one-point losses and got back on track with a 6-4 victory over Edmonton’s Team Brendan Bottcher on Wednesday night at the Olds Sportsplex.

Mouat, who captured the Princess Auto Players’ Championship just a little over two weeks ago in Toronto, is supported by lead Hammy Mcmillan, second Bobby Lammie and third Ross Whyte, who has come off of the bench as alternate to fill in for regular vice skip Grant Hardie.

“It felt like we’ve been close a lot the week so far and it was just really important to put a full game together and that’s what we did there,” said The Peak-based Mouat. “Ross is obviously a great player but when we bring in a new player you’re going to have a few kind of teething issues. It’s finally feeling like we’re back to firing on all cylinders.”

The game was textbook for Mouat as he forced Bottcher to single points in the odd ends while converting for deuces in second, fourth and sixth. That gave Mouat the hammer coming home in the eighth already up by two, and the five-time Grand Slam champion didn’t need to throw his last as Bottcher rolled out on his final shot to run out of rocks.

“I’m really happy we were really clinical getting our twos and forcing them to ones,” Mouat said. “That’s what you’re taught when you’re young, so it was nice to actually be able to do it.”

Their opening two matches saw them lose narrowly 6-5 to Soohyuk Kim’s team and 4-3 to Jason Gunnlaugson’s rink.