After two tough losses, Merle Kopach’s Saskatchewan rink desperately needed a win.

The 2014 defending champions finally got on the board last night, crushing the host rink from the Yukon 10-2 in 2015 Canadian Masters Curling Championship action at the Whitehorse Curling Club.

Kopach and company won big, scoring a deuce in the first, adding four more in the third and stealing a triple in the fifth as Pat Banks’s crew struggled to find their game.

“We have to win out now in order to the championship round,” the 68-year-old Kopach told the Star post-game. “I think another loss would pretty much do us in.”

Following an opening 7-4 loss to Manitoba and a 7-5 loss to Nova Scotia, Kopach’s rink found itself in unfamiliar territory entering their contest versus Banks’s host rink.

“I wasn’t sharp in the first game,” said Kopach. “We curled better in the second game, but still were one shot too short.”

Saskatchewan returned the same lineup they fielded at last year’s championship with third Audrey Crosson, second Linda Delver and lead Janet Rooks curling alongside Kopach.

Kopach’s rink from the Granite Curling Club in Saskatoon also won the national masters title in 2012, with Rae Wilson playing lead at the time.

This year’s championship marks their fourth appearance at nationals, the skip noted, with the previous three resulting in medals (one bronze).

“It’s competitive,” she said of the masters. “Lots of people have played in the Scotties and the seniors, so we’re not really good recreational curlers.”

Meanwhile, Banks, 69, who curls alongside Marg White (third), Val Whelan (second) and Lorraine Stick (lead), was thrust into the event as a host team after a rink from Prince Edward Island registered late.

“We weren’t expecting to perform miracles,” she said. “But I don’t feel like the underdog. We were a little unprepared, but I don’t think we were that bad overall. We hit the broom.”

Banks, who is also serving as a co-chair for the event, said visitors have been enjoying the Yukon capital thus far, with many using their off time to try mushing or soak in the hot springs.

The host rink is currently 0-3.

Meanwhile, Yukon women’s skip Ellen Johnson also continues to seek her first win, after dropping all four games so far.

Following today’s action, the pools will be split into championship and seeding divisions, with the top four teams from each pool moving on to play for their respective titles.

As of press time today, Manitoba (3-0) and Alberta (2-1) lead the way in Pool A, while B.C. (4-0) and Ontario (3-0) are tops in Pool B.

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In men’s action, George Hilderman’s Yukon rink lost its first game yesterday, 9-3 to Manitoba.

Hilderman gave up four in the first end to Manitoba’s Ron Westcott, and was only able to score singles in the second, third and fifth in a game that saw handshakes after six ends.

Then this morning, the Yukon blew an early 4-0 lead to British Columbia’s Gerald Kent, eventually losing 8-4.

After scoring four in the first, Hilderman was unable to strike again, instead watching as B.C. worked to tie the game in the fourth and then won it with a steal of four in the seventh.

The Yukon men will face New Brunswick’s Brian Mackin at 4:30 today. The two teams are both 2-2.

Early leaders are Pool A’s Manitoba (4-0) and B.C. (3-1) and Pool B’s Nova Scotia (4-0) and Northern Ontario (3-1).