Canadacup day1
Skip Kaitlyn Lawes and third Kirsten Wall talk strategy between shots

Curling took over Mosaic Place in Moose Jaw on Wednesday as the 2012 Capital One Canada Cup of Curling kicked off with a day full of action.

The opening day was filled with excitement from start to finish and the teams definitely didn’t disappoint. There were upsets, there was fan favourites picking up big wins and some amazing shots made throughout the day.

The biggest news of the opening day is no doubt the fact that the lone Saskatchewan rink, Stefanie Lawton and company, have started the event with back-to-back wins and look to be playing at the top of their game after one day. Lawton opened up with a dominating effort against Sherry Middaugh in the morning, beating the Ontario based rink, 10-4.  The perfect start to the Canada Cup for Lawton, who’s no stranger to success at this event having won in 2008 and 2010, continued in the afternoon draw when she met up with defending Scotties champion, Heather Nedohin, and dispatched of her, 8-5, in tough game.

The Lawton rink is joined at the top of the women's standings by the defending champion Jennifer Jones rink, who have started at 2-0, despite the absence of their skip Jennifer Jones. Usually playing third, Kaitlyn Lawes has filled in well for their missing skip. They knocked off Team Crystal Webster in the opening draw, 9-7, and then held on for a 9-6 win over the Cathy Overton-Clapham rink in the night draw.

“You can't complain when you start the first day off of an event and get two wins, so we're happy,” said Lawes after the Overton-Clapham game.  “We're still learning what the ice is doing and we're managing it the best we can, so it was a good first day for us.”

While the team is still learning how to play the ice conditions, Lawes says that was one of their positives during opening day is their ability to read the ice, “We're within the tolerance of the shots and we're communicating well.  Our patience helps us as well.”

Lawes is a young skip at just 23-years-old, but there is plenty of experience around her in the Jones rink, like Jill Officer, “They make my job easy and I can draw from their experience.  It's a ton of fun, so they make my job really easy.”

Lawes and Lawton will square off in a first place showdown on Thursday afternoon at 2:00pm.  That will be the first game of the day for both teams.

Middaugh is in a three way tie with Nedohin and Webster at 1-1.  Middaugh beat Cathy Overton-Clapham, 8-5 in her win; Nedohin had a strong end to the day with a 9-7 win over Chelsea Carey, who dropped down to 0-2.  Oveton-Clapham is still looking for her first medal at the event.

The men’s event saw the biggest upset of the day right away in the morning.  The young John Epping rink picked up a surprising 7-6 win over the defending champion Kevin Martin rink. Epping continued to be a surprise in the afternoon draw, pushing the fan favourite Kevin Koe rink to the brink, but Koe was able to hold on for a 5-3 win.  The game turned in Koe’s favour late when he picked up two points in the seventh end and then they blanked the eighth and ninth for the win.

Canadacup day1-2
The Kevin Koe rink plays a stone in their game against Jeff Stoughton

Koe continued to face stiff competition in their second game of the day in the night draw when he went head-to-head with Jeff Stoughton.  This one again was a back and forth affair that Stoughton ended up taking, 7-5.  Steals of one in the third, seventh and tenth were the difference for Stoughton in the win. Koe wasn’t entirely thrilled with the team’s play in the late draw after the game, “It was an average day.  Won one and lost one, I guess that's OK, but we're not throwing it as well as we need to that for sure,” said Koe.

“We had quite a few bad throws out there, so we just have to hope we play better (Thursday).”

Althought the event is the type where every loss hurts, Koe says they're not too worried about it and will try to bounce back in the morning, “It's nothing to get too excited about, that's just the way it is.  We've practice lots, but just need to pick up our game a little bit.”

On the other hand everything was going right for the Stoughton rink on the opening day as they're one of two men's teams that went undefeated in two games on Wednesday.

“It was a great first day,” said Stoughton.  “Couldn't have asked for anything better than two wins against a couple great teams, so we've just got to keep it going (on Thursday) because there's no easy games out there. You've got to make the right shots at the right time and we've been fortunate to do that a couple of times so far, so (Thursday) is another day and we could have had a couple players.”

The other undefeated men's team is the Mike McEwen rink and they were dominant on the opening day, steamrolling over Brad Gushue – who finished the day 0-2 -- 8-2, in the afternoon draw and then sending Glenn Howard down to 0-2 with a 7-6 win.

The men’s event is tight with no team really asserting themselves as the favourite.  Stoughton and McEwen are 2-0; Koe, Epping and Martin are sitting at 1-1; and Howard and Gushue are coming up the back end at 0-2.

Over 2,200 people were in attendance for the evening draw to wrap up Day 1.  Over 5,400 people went through the turnstiles in total on the opening day.