Field, round-robin pools finalized for 2024 Montana’s Brier in Regina

A rematch of the Alberta final will be among the four big games that will kick off the 2024 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI, it was confirmed today by Curling Canada.

The field, as well as the makeup of both round-robin pools and the final schedule, have all been decided for the Montana’s Brier, which run March 1-10 at the Brandt Centre in Regina, after the final three teams were determined on Sunday.

Newly crowned Alberta champion Team Aaron Sluchinski of Airdrie will take on four-time Brier champion Kevin Koe and his team from Calgary, a rematch of Sunday’s Boston Pizza Cup Alberta Men’s Championship final in Hinton, Alta., where Team Sluchinski prevailed 6-3.

Despite the loss, Team Koe earned a Montana’s Brier berth as the highest-ranked team on the Canadian Team Ranking System that didn’t qualify previously.

The field was completed with Team Reid Carruthers of Winnipeg capturing the Viterra Championship Manitoba title Sunday in Stonewall with a win over Team Braden Calvert.

Defending champion Team Canada, skipped by Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., 14 provincial and territorial champions and three teams that qualified based on Canadian Team Ranking System results will open play on March 1 at the Brandt Centre in Regina, with the first draw set for 6 p.m. (all times Central Standard).

Besides the all-Alberta tilt, Team Canada opens its title defence against Nova Scotia’ Team Matthew Manuel of Halifax; the host Saskatchewan team from Saskatoon, skipped by Mike McEwen, plays Prince Edward Island’s Team Tyler Smith; and Team Jamie Koe of the Northwest Territories is up against Team Julien Tremblay of Quebec.

The event will feature 18 teams — Team Canada, 14 provincial/territorial champions and three Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) qualifiers — split into two pools of nine.

Two pre-qualified teams — Team Matt Dunstone of Winnipeg and Team Brendan Bottcher of Calgary — were declared based on 2022-23 CTRS rankings, while one more — Team Koe — was confirmed today.

Teams will play a complete eight-game round robin within their pools. From there, the top three teams in each pool advance to the playoffs.

There will be no tiebreakers; if teams are tied for a playoff spot, head-to-head results will be the first tiebreaker, and if that doesn’t resolve the tie, Last-Shot Draw rankings will rank the teams — the same formula used at World Championship events and the Winter Olympics.

A modified playoff format will see the first-place team from Pool A meeting second place from Pool B, and vice versa, in the first round of the playoffs at 1 p.m. (all times CST) on March 8, with the winners going directly to the Page playoff 1-2 game, while the losers meet the third-place finishers in the pools March 8 at 7 p.m. The winners of those games will advance to the Page playoff 3-4 game.

The standard Page playoffs commence with the winner of the Page 1v2 game on Saturday, March 9, at 7 p.m., advancing directly to the final, and the loser plays the winner of the Page 3v4 game (scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday) in the semifinal. 

The semifinal (Sunday, March 10, at noon) winner takes on the winner of the Page 1v2 game in the final at 6 p.m. on Sunday. The winner will represent Canada at the 2024 LGT World Men’s Curling Championship March 30-April 7 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

Here’s a look at how the two pools are set up:

(Teams listed according to overall seeding, and listed in order of skip [player calling the shots], vice-skip [player holding the broom for the skip], second, lead, alternate, coach/High Performance Consultant)

* – Denotes provincial champion for provinces with more than one team representing

Pool A

1. Alberta-Bottcher, Brendan Bottcher (Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant, Ben Hebert, Paul Webster; Calgary)
4. Manitoba-Dunstone, Matt Dunstone (B.J. Neufeld, Colton Lott, Ryan Harnden, Rob Gordon, Adam Kingsbury; Winnipeg)
*-5. Manitoba-Carruthers, Brad Jacobs (Reid Carruthers, Derek Samagalski, Connor Njegovan, Rob Meakin; Winnipeg)
8. Ontario, Scott Howard (David Mathers, Glenn Howard, Tim March, Mathew Camm; Penetanguishene)
9. British Columbia, Catlin Schneider (Alex Horvath [throws lead stones], Jason Ginter [throws third stones], Sterling Middleton [throws second stones], Bryan Miki, Jamie Schneider; Victoria)
12. New Brunswick, James Grattan (Joel Krats, Paul Dobson, Andy McCann, Drew Grattan, Dean Grattan; Oromocto)
13. Northern Ontario, Trevor Bonot (Mike McCarville, Jordan Potts, Kurtis Byrd, Al Hackner; Thunder Bay)
16. Newfoundland/Labrador, Andrew Symonds (Colin Thomas, Stephen Trickett, Alex Smith, Dave Noftall, Jeff Thomas; St. John’s)
17. Yukon, Thomas Scoffin (Trygg Jensen, Joe Wallingham, Evan Latos, Wade Scoffin, Kevin Patterson; Whitehorse)

Pool B

2. Team Canada, Brad Gushue (Mark Nichols, E.J. Harnden, Geoff Walker, Caleb Flaxey; St. John’s, N.L.)
3. Alberta-Koe, Kevin Koe (Tyler Tardi, Jacques Gauthier, Karrick Martin, Mike Libbus; Calgary)
6. Saskatchewan, Mike McEwen (Kevin Marsh [throws second stones], Colton Flasch [throws third stones], Daniel Marsh, Pat Simmons, Brent Laing; Saskatoon)
*- 7. Alberta-Sluchinski, Aaron Sluchinski (Jeremy Harty, Kerr Drummond, Dylan Webster, Mickey Pendergast; Airdrie)
10. Quebec, Julien Tremblay (Jean-Michel Arsenault, Jesse Mullen, Philippe Brassard, Vincent Roberge, Eric Sylvain; Etchemin/Kenogami/Chicoutimi/Victoria)
11. Nova Scotia, Matthew Manuel (Luke Saunders, Jeff Meagher, Nick Zachernuk, Kim Kelly; Halifax)
14. Prince Edward Island, Tyler Smith (Adam Cocks, Christopher Gallant, Edward White, Paul Flemming; Crapaud)
15. Northwest Territories, Jamie Koe (Glen Kennedy, Cole Parsons, Shadrach McLeod, Stephen Robertson; Yellowknife)
18. Nunavut, Shane Latimer (Sheldon Wettig, Brady St. Louis, Christian Smitheram, Peter Van Strien; Iqaluit)

For the full 2024 Montana’s Brier schedule, CLICK HERE.

TSN/RDS2 , the official broadcast partner of Curling Canada’s Season of Champions, will televise all of the action from Regina.

Tickets are available online at curling.ca/tickets, or in person at the Brandt Centre box office. Ticket inquiries can be sent to [email protected] or by phone at (639) 709-5575.