HOT START FOR CANADA

Team Canada bolts from the blocks in BKT World Men’s opener

Skip Brad Jacobs was hoping to hit the ground running Saturday in Team Canada’s opening game of the 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship at the Temple Gardens Centre in Moose Jaw, Sask.

Running? It turned out to be more like sprinting.

Team Canada (1-0) needed some early patience, brilliant shooting from its skip and a well-thought out shot selection in the sixth end from their lead to cruise to a 7-3 win over Japan’s Team Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi (0-1) in one of four games to kick off the nine-day, 13-team curling extravaganza.

It may have been one game to start their 12-game round-robin, but it was an eye-popping win for Jacobs, vice-skip Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant, lead Ben Hebert, alternate Tyler Tardi, team coach Paul Webster and national coach Jeff Stoughton for several reasons. It got them off on the right foot and showed they hadn’t developed any rust after their impressive performance in winning the 2025 Montana’s Brier in Kelowna, B.C., two weeks ago.

It also amped up the Canadian fans who will be the wind beneath their wings in the coming days at the 4,500-seat arena. Team Canada will need that support as it faces a long and grinding week playing against multiple former and current world and Olympic champions in the field.

“We were really excited coming into this game,” said Jacobs. “Just before we got started we started to get goosebumps. Awesome job by the guys. They played great. They settled nicely in front of me.

“What was really nice is when we made a couple of big shots finally later in the game to hear the crowd kind of get into it. I think that just wants us to make more shots for the fans going all week.”

It will be a quick turnaround for Team Canada, which will take on European champs Team Marc Muskatewitz of Germany in the evening draw.

Jacobs could have been excused if he wanted to race up to the arena for his opener Saturday. It’s been a long time since he played at the world level and the native of Sault Ste Marie, Ont., was eager to mix it up with his first-year team out of Calgary, now ranked third in the world. Jacobs skipped Canada to the Olympic gold medal in 2014, one year after settling for silver at the 2013 world men’s event in his only previous appearance.

After that it’s been one dry hole after another, with a brief spell of pseudo-retirement thrown in.

But absence makes the heart grow fonder, and Jacobs was thrilled to be back at the worlds. 

It showed on the ice where Jacobs was perfect through the first five ends, building a 2-1 lead. His teammates were no slouches either.

But the game was turned on its head in the sixth end when, at the urging of Hebert, the Canadians decided to have Kennedy play a raise takeout, using their own rock, with the shooter rolling over to cover the raised rock. Team Canada suddenly had a three building.

Japanese last-rock thrower Riku Yanagisawa couldn’t connect on two double attempts, leading to a draw of three from Jacobs and a 5-1 lead.

Jacobs admitted he leans on Hebert for his experience.

“I empower my guys to be themselves, and make sure they know their value is greatly appreciated,” he said. “We’ve designated Ben. One of his responsibilities and roles on this team is strategy, making sure we don’t make mistakes with calls. He’s got a lot of great ideas. His mind is always working on strategies.”

Team Japan had something going in the seventh but Jacobs played a superb run-double to limit Team Yamaguchi to one.

Jacobs added to his highlight-reel afternoon when, with his final stone in the eighth, he chipped out the Team Japanese shot stone off the button, seeing only a couple of inches of it from the hack.

Jacobs finished the game shooting 97 per cent but would have been perfect except missing his final shot.

Hebert gave full marks to Jacobs for his lights-out performance.

“He was riding a hot hand, and riding the energy of the crowd out there. Got us going,” he said. “That was awesome. We played great, need a little rest and come out with a lot of energy tonight. We have a tough team in Germany tonight.” 

Despite his absence from the world stage, there is a hint of familiarity in Moose Jaw for Jacobs. He settled an old score Saturday with Yamaguchi, who handed him a defeat in 2013, and coming up quick on Team Canada’s schedule is reigning world champion Niklas Edin of Sweden, who defeated Jacobs twice at that event, including in the final.

Edin, looking for a record eighth world championship, opens his defence in the evening against China’s Team Xiaonubg Xu. Another early favourite, world No. 1 Team Bruce Mouat of Scotland, also had the early bye and will play Austria’s Team Mathias Genner in the evening draw.

Jacobs and Co. are looking to bring a world men’s title back to Canada for the first time since 2017 when skip Brad Gushue (with Gallant at second) won in Edmonton.

In the other opening-draw games, Team Korey Dropkin of the United States (1-0) posted a 7-6 win over Italy’s Team Joel Retornaz (1-0), Team Yannick Schwaller of Switzerland (1-0) dropped Norway’s Team Magnus Ramsfjell (0-1) 7-4, and Team Lucas Klima of the Czech Republic (1-0) got past South Korea’s Team Jaebeom Lee (0-1) 6-5.

The round-robin wraps up April 4, with the top six teams advancing to the playoffs.

Making the playoffs is key, but teams are also eyeing the top two spots and a bye to the semifinals, a big advantage in the sprint to the finish.

 The final goes Sunday, April 6.

The event will also help determine most of the countries that will be competing for gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy.

The 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship continues with draws Sunday at 9 a.m.,  2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (all times Central Standard).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship are available by CLICKING HERE.

TSN and RDS2 will provide complete coverage of the 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship, go to www.curling.ca/2025worldmen/tickets/.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2025worldmen/nouvelles/?lang=fr.