Epping masterful while Homan squeaks out a victory at the Grand Slam of Curling's Canadian Open

Victories at the Grand Slam of Curling's Meridian Canadian Open were fashioned in entirely different ways, on Sunday, in Yorkton, Saskatchewan.

For Team John Epping, it was a clinical, superb show of force, capped with the shooting wizardry of the skip, who dropped jaws every end. For Team Rachel Homan - the bullet train of women's curling in 2015, it was a scratch and a claw against the opposition as well as themselves.

EPPING GETS HOT AND STAYS THAT WAY IN DEFEATING BRAD GUSHUE

While Team Brad Gushue has been the most consistent foursome in the men's game so far this season, Toronto's Team John Epping has been the circuit's hottest rink over the last two or three weeks, capping a perfect week at the Canadian Open with a 7-4, seven end decision over Gushue.

"I just think that everything's just starting to mesh and it feels very, very comfortable out there and we've been working really hard this season," Epping told Sportsnet's Joan McCusker just after the win.

Epping, along with teammates Mat Camm, Patrick Janssen and Tim March fired a collective 87%, with Epping personally booking a perfect game, graded at 100%.

The skip's shooting prowess was sensational as he knocked down every challenge in front of him, including a double for three in the sixth end. He kept it going an end later and it was surprising that the Sportsnet commentators' booth didn't just erupt into giggles, so ridiculous was Epping's display.

"Quite the clinic we're getting to enjoy today," said analyst Kevin Martin, just after Epping made a double in the seventh to get out of major trouble.

"I don't know if I've ever seen a skip, in the seventh end, curling 95% and he's down four," followed Mike Harris.

Epping's surreal run of angle-raise wizardry gave him control of the game at the break. After Saturday night's incredible shot to win his semi-final against Team Kevin Koe (you can see video of that shot here), he hit the fifth end with a 4-2 lead, fashioned on two shots that mimicked the Saturday night miracle. Epping nailed an angle-raise take out for two in the second and then did it again in the fourth, again for two. How a guy stays off Santa's "naughty" list after that kind of thievery, I'll never know.

Is the Epping foursome ready to leap into the upper echelons on the tour for good? That's uncertain but it does appear that they have arrived at the doorstep of provincial championship season in very good shape, even if the skip can't be perfect every game.

HOMAN'S INCREDIBLE SEASON CONTINUES

Rachel Homan's season of domination continues, although her team's 8-7 win over Team Jennifer Jones did not come in characteristic fashion.

“We had to battle for everything,” Homan told Martin just after the victory, iced when Jones' attempt at a tap back wrecked on a guard and provided Homan and teammates Emma Miskew, Joanne Courtney and Lisa Weagle with the winning deuce.

Team Homan's season has so far been one for the ages, even if this win was not, with pretty near every player on the ice struggling with reading ice at one point or another. In the sixth end, Homan made a dazzling freeze to steal one and take the lead before hogging - hogging - her first stone of the seventh. That opened up the possibility that Jones could crack a four-banger until Homan bounced right back with her second stone, playing another cozy freeze to the heart of the house.

“It was an uncharacteristic couple of misses from us and from them too,” Homan told Sportsnet. That is true. “Not been a clean game here, but exciting,” said analyst Mike Harris at one point. True, again. Homan's team had the good fortune of having a bad game on the same day Team Jones did. (Team Homan shot 79% while Team Jones shot 69%).

Part of the offensive outburst, undoubtedly, came about because Homan did not have hammer in the first end. History shows that when that happens, she's content to play a blank or two to start off. Jones is the aggressive kind and showed those stripes again, setting the tone with rocks in play and a two-nothing lead after one. Game on.

So Team Homan hits their Christmas break in the middle of a half-season of utter domination, rolling up a record (according to stats at Curling Zone) of 52 wins against 6 losses - that's a winning percentage of .897 - including a Golden State Warriors-like win streak of 25 games (one better than the Warriors, actually), at one point. They've beaten Team Jones all four times they've played them this season.

They're runaway leaders in the World standings and have hoarded so much cash in the first four months of the season ($157,254.00), they can't possibly help but go through their holiday break as giddy as Scrooge on Christmas morning.

The Canadian Open victory marked the seventh tournament victory of the year for Team Homan, including last week's Canada Cup and three of the four Grand Slam tour events held so far. In the fourth, the season-opening Tour Challenge, Homan and company were finalists. They were that close to running the table in the first half.

It is unarguable that they are the best women's curling team on earth at the present time and the questions that are so intriguing for the second half of the season are these: How can Team Homan be stopped and who's going to do it?