It was the usual suspects who ended up being the last teams standing at the opening Grand Slam of the season.
Canada's Team Brad Gushue and Switzerland's Team Silvana Tirinzoni were both victorious at the National this weekend in North Bay, Ont., and each took home $33,000 of the $150,000 purse.
Gushue, third Mark Nichols, second E.J. Harnden and lead Geoff Walker went a perfect 7-0 at the six-day event, including wins over Glenn Howard, Kevin Koe, Brendan Bottcher and Colton Flasch in the preliminary round.
Gushue and company went on to defeat Team Michael Brunner in the quarterfinal and Team Korey Dropkin in the semifinal before displacing world men's champion Team Niklas Edin of Sweden in the championship game, 5-4 in an extra end.
It was Team Gushue's second event of the season after competing in the PointsBet Invitational last month in Fredericton, N.B.
The St. John's native has now won 14 Grand Slams in his career.
On the women's side, Team Tirinzoni, who have won three straight world women's curling titles, also put up a perfect 7-0 in North Bay, highlighted by a 7-3 win over the three-time defending Canadian champs led by Kerri Einarson.
Tirinzoni defeated Jennifer Jones and Kailyn Lawes in the playoffs en route to the championship game while Einarson beat Raphaela Keiser and Satsuki Fujisawa in the semis. Rachel Homan also made the playoffs, losing to Team Lawes in the quarterfinal.
Despite having two new players this season - second Carole Howard and lead Briar Hürlimann - Team Tirinzoni have been tremendous, sporting a 28-4 record with four final appearances and three event wins.
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