Looking to end Manitoba’s Brier drought

It’s been a while since Team Manitoba stood on top of the podium at the Brier.

You have to go back to 2011 when Jeff Stoughton won the Canadian men’s curling championship in London, Ont., en route to also winning that year’s world title.

At this week’s Brier, which also happens to be in London, there’s a decent chance the province’s drought could come to an end as Fort Rouge’s Matt Dunstone — who’s ranked first in the Canadian Team Ranking System — is a strong contender.

The 18-team event kicks off Friday and runs until March 12.

“I’m hoping that’s some good karma for us going into this,” said Dunstone on being in London. “It would obviously mean the world. It’s everything you dream of growing up and it’s just taking that next step to becoming world champion.”

The 27-year-old Dunstone, who grew up in Winnipeg but now lives in Kamloops, B.C., curled out of Saskatchewan for the last quadrennial and finished in third place at the 2020 and 2021 Briers. Now wearing the Buffalo jacket as Manitoba’s representative and in his first-year curling with third B.J. Neufeld, second Colton Lott, and lead Ryan Harnden, Dunstone hopes he can return home with gold.

Dunstone, who plays his first game on Saturday afternoon against Saskatchewan’s Kelly Knapp, beat Reid Carruthers in last month’s provincial final in Neepawa.

“You look at the talent we put together on this team, and I think we knew right away what this team is capable of. Obviously, we had to go out and show it and it needs to come together, which up to this point it has,” said Dunstone.

“I think what’s benefited this group most is we’ve been able to play in a lot of big games in the 10 events prior to this. I think that’s going to be the biggest benefit to us moving forward in this event as a new team is the fact we’ve played in slam finals, the PointsBet final, and that sort of thing. When the moments get tough, that’s when you see everyone’s true colours and what they’re like in big games. We’ve already experienced that… so, there’s gonna be no surprises, no moment too big for this team.”

Dunstone is one of four skips from Winnipeg at the Brier. After falling just short at provincials, Carruthers, who played lead for Stoughton in 2011, had to settle for being Wild Card No. 2 this week. Mike McEwen, now curling out of Toronto, is skipping Ontario’s team, and Jacques Gauthier is making his men’s nationals debut while wearing British Columbia’s colours.

The 18 teams are split into two pools of nine. The top three from each pool at the end of the round robin advance to the championship round. Dunstone and Carruthers are in Pool A, McEwen and Gauthier are in Pool B.

“It’s no secret that Manitoba is curling’s hotbed,” said Dunstone.

“It has been for years, especially on the women’s side the last half decade has been quite remarkable. It’s great for the province.”

“When the moments get tough, that’s when you see everyone’s true colours and what they’re like in big games. We’ve already experienced that… so, there’s gonna be no surprises, no moment too big for this team.”–Matt Dunstone

After parting ways with third Jason Gunnlaugson in December, Carruthers closed out the season as a three-man team with second Derek Samagalski and lead Connor Njegovan. They’ll be back to a normal lineup in London as they picked up Rob Gordon, Njegovan’s first cousin and the lead for Braden Calvert, for nationals.

“The biggest goal for us is just keep building on getting better right now, especially with it being a first year with a new team and then having some different circumstances, obviously,” said Njegovan, who’s now been bumped up to second.

“We just want to continue to find a way to get a little bit better and we’ve been doing that the last couple events.”

“We work really hard and if we put ourselves in a position where if we feel like we play to the level that we should be playing at, I think we’ll have an opportunity to move on to the next round.”

Carruthers is coming off of a Scotties championship as he spent the last two weeks in Kamloops coaching Gimli’s Kerri Einarson and her Team Canada teammates. McEwen’s third Ryan Fry, a former Winnipegger, was also there to coach Ontario’s Rachel Homan.

Even though coaching at the women’s nationals was a big commitment and took him away from his own squad, Carruthers feels ready to go. He got to spend some time with his new teammate as Gordon was also there to cheer on his girlfriend Kristin MaCuish who plays lead for Kaitlyn Lawes.

“It’s obviously a bigger advantage to be with your teammates… but we did get some time (to practice together) when I came back. I’m not all that nervous about it,” said Carruthers.

“I feel like we’re prepared and we’re ready. I had time in my schedule to go and throw, so it’s not like I hadn’t put on the shoes for a few weeks. We’ll be just fine.”

“I feel like we’re prepared and we’re ready. I had time in my schedule to go and throw, so it’s not like I hadn’t put on the shoes for a few weeks. We’ll be just fine.”–Reid Carruthers

While Dunstone may be ranked first in the country, the favourite will continue to be Brad Gushue until someone knocks him off. Gushue, who’s in Pool B as Team Canada, has won four of the last six national championships. Gushue played a lighter schedule this year, but is still ranked No. 3 in the CTRS. Brendan Bottcher, also in Pool B, is ranked second despite losing the Alberta final to Kevin Koe.

“Along with him (Gushue), Bottcher and Koe have basically owned this event for this past decade, and you can add Brad Jacobs into there, too,” said Dunstone. “They’re definitely going to be the team to beat this week with a handful of others as well.”

[email protected]

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31

Taylor Allen
Reporter

Eighteen years old and still in high school, Taylor got his start with the Free Press on June 1, 2011. Well, sort of…

   Read full biography