CALGARY – A total of five teams - three men's and two women's - went 2-0 to open the 2025 Canada West Curling Championships at the Calgary Curling Club in downtown Calgary on Friday.

The host Dinos were joined by the reigning national champion Regina Cougars and upstart Thompson Rivers WolfPack as undefeated men's squads through day one.

On the women's side, Alberta started its conference title defence with two wins, while Regina kept pace with a 2-0 start.

It didn't take long for some fireworks at this year's CW Championships, with a huge upset in the first draw. Thompson Rivers - which hasn't competed in curling since 2016 - knocking off the five-time reigning champion in the Alberta Golden Bears with a two-spot in the eighth end for the 5-4 win. In fact, not only did TRU pull off a huge win in its opener, it marked the first ever loss for Alberta during its five-year run as conference champions - going a perfect 21-0 since Canada West started hosting this championship in 2019.

There was no letdown in the second match of the day for the WolfPack, scoring three in the fifth end to build a 6-2 lead over Brandon and never looking back for a 7-3 final.

Calgary picked up wins over Lethbridge (4-2) and UBC (7-6), while Regina dominated in its wins over the Thunderbirds (6-1) and Pronghorns (10-2) to also move to 2-0.

"We're off to a good start," Regina head coach Tom Hammon said. "We didn't get here in time to do any pre-event practice, so all we had was pregame practice today. I like the facility and the ice - the outside edges are a little tricky and we seemed to adapt to that and took advantage of our opponents' misses today."

The Vikes and Bobcats battled in one of the best matchups of the day in the opener. In a showdown that featured four lead changes over seven ends, Victoria overcame a 7-3 deficit to comeback for an 8-7 victory.

On the women's side, Alberta - which won last year's conference title and has claimed three of the five Canada West crowns in the league's history - was nothing short of dominant Friday. The Pandas eased into things with a 9-2 win over UBC in the opening draw before powering to an 11-0 win in the finale to send a message that they're once again ready.

"It was a good day," Pandas head coach Dana Ferguson said. "Our whole goal was to learn the ice and they did a really good job of that. They took any miss that happened and learned from it. This game (in the second draw) - they were really precise and they were making the shots they need to amke and they were learning from the ones they didn't make.

"For tomorrow, we still need two more wins to keep doing what we are doing and not get ahead of ourselves. We have three games tomorrow and the idea of sticking with the basics and taking it one shot at a time and we'll find our way through."

Regina jumped out to a strong start in its opening 8-4 win over Lethbridge before overcoming a bit of an early hole for a 7-3 win over UBC.

Brandon earned a solid win in its first game, securing three points with its final stone for a 7-6 win over the Dinos.

Calgary bounced back for a 7-6 win over TRU to finish as one of four women's teams that sit at 1-1 after Friday's competition.

Draw 3 of the 2025 CW Championships gets underway at 9 a.m. on Saturday, with all eight teams once again in action bright at early.

 MEN'S STANDINGS

TEAM	W	L
Calgary	2
Regina	2
TRU	2
Alberta	1	1
Victoria	1	1
Brandon		2
Lethbridge		2
UBC		2

WOMEN'S STANDINGS

TEAM	W	L
Alberta	2
Regina	2
Brandon	1	1
Calgary	1	1
TRU	1	1
Victoria	1	1
Lethbridge		2
UBC		2

DRAW 1

Alberta (W)	9
UBC (W)	2
Victoria (W)	4
Thompson Rivers (W)	8
Regina (W)	8
Lethbridge (W)	4
Calgary (W)	6
Brandon (W)	7
Alberta (M)		4
Thompson Rivers (W)		5
Regina (M)		6
UBC (M)		1
Brandon (M)		7
Victoria (M)		8
Calgary (M)		4
Lethbridge (M)		2

DRAW 2

Victoria (W)	5
Brandon (W)	1
Alberta (W)	11
Lethbridge (W)	0
Calgary (W)	7
Thompson Rivers (W)	6
Regina (W)	7
UBC (W)	3
Brandon (M)	3
Thompson Rivers (M)	7
Calgary (M)	7
UBC (M)	6
Alberta (M)	12
Victoria (M)	1
Regina (M)	10
Lethbridge (M)	2

 
 -UC-