Team Manitoba-Dunstone on target in 2025 Montana’s Brier opening night win

Matt Dunstone has never arrived at a major curling event without high expectations.

But upon his Winnipeg team’s arrival in Kelowna, B.C., for the 2025 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI, the 29-year-old skip was hardly alone in believing his team could be the one to beat over the next nine days at Prospera Place.

Dunstone, vice-skip Colton Lott, second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden, alternate Adam Kingsbury and coach Caleb Flaxey are the top-ranked team in the country, having lost just two games of their most recent 24 since E.J. Harnden joined the team at second in December.

And that hot streak continued Friday night in the opening draw of the Canadian Men’s Curling Championship, as Team Manitoba-Dunstone curled a collective 90 per cent to beat Alberta’s Team Kevin Koe (Calgary) 6-2.

While there is still plenty of work to be done over the next few days, Dunstone knows there is no way his team will be flying under the radar in Kelowna.

“It’s tough to hide under the radar, given how the season’s gone,” conceded Dunstone with a smile. “You know, it’s fun. I mean, you’ll never say no to being ranked No. 1 in Canada; it’s just an evaluation of how the season’s gone. (But) everybody knows how many good teams that are here. Brad’s (Gushue) won three of these in a row now, I believe.

“So I mean, overall, the ranking and where we sit is an evaluation of what’s been done up to this point and doesn’t carry a lot of meaning going into this event.”

Four of the first five ends were blanked, but only those looking at the scoreboard and not watching the game would have found it boring. Both teams tried to generate offence, only to have some highlight-reel runbacks snuff out scoring threats.

Team Dunstone opened the scoring with a steal in the third when Koe’s last-rock double-takeout attempt failed to curl enough. Just before the fifth-end break, Dunstone could be heard on the TSN broadcast telling Lott that it was the “most exciting one-nothing game after five ends you’ll ever watch.”

“I was dead serious,” said Dunstone afterward. “I mean, you look at the blank ends — there were rocks in play every end. First couple ends, E.J. made a run double to get us out of trouble. Tardi (Alberta second Tyler Tardi), he made a run-stick to put us into some heat. I mean, there was a ton of rocks in play — just nobody could find a way to score.”

It got more exciting for Dunstone, who lives just two hours away in Kamloops, in the sixth when Koe came up light on his last-rock draw to bite the four-foot, resulting in a steal of two.

Team Koe cut the margin to one with one in the seventh and a stolen single in the eight, but Dunstone unfurled a hammer-stone heater double-takeout to score three in the ninth and prompt handshakes from the Albertans.

“Yeah, it was fun,” said Dunstone of the game-ending shot. “You know, you want to get those Harnden boys celebrating early and often at these events to get the fire going. So I knew we had that opportunity I missed a bad one on my first one in eight (wrecking on a guard and leading to the Alberta steal). So that was just an opportunity to pick the guys up and put an end to a game.

“I mean, what a great night. You know, this has all the makings to be a really good Brier.”

In other games Friday night, Manitoba’s Team Reid Carruthers (Winnipeg) held on for a 6-5 win over B.C.’s Team Cameron deJong (Victoria); Team Canada, skipped by Brad Gushue (St. John’s, N.L.) rolled to a 9-2 win over his St. John’s counterpart, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Team Ty Dilello; and Northern Ontario’s Team John Epping (Sudbury) needed an extra end to get by New Brunswick’s Team James Grattan (Oromocto) 7-6.

Nunavut’s Team Shane Latimer (Iqaluit) had the Pool A bye on Friday night.

The Montana’s Brier continues Saturday with draws at 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. (all times Pacific).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2025 Montana’s Brier are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/.

TSN and RDS2 will provide complete coverage of the 2025 Montana’s Brier. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2025 Montana’s Brier, go to www.curling.ca/2025brier/tickets/

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