Fear the Moose!

Northern Ontario’s Team Bonot wins key game at Montana’s Brier

It’s been a few years since the curling-rich area of Northern Ontario has won a Canadian men’s curling championship, but skip Trevor Bonot says, why not him and his team this year?

There is still a long way to go and more work to do, but skip Bonot and Team Northern Ontario (3-1, Thunder Bay) could join the likes of Brad Jacobs and Al Hackner as Brier-winning Northern Ontario teams.

Team Bonot, which includes vice-skip Mike McCarville, second Jordan Potts, lead Kurtis Byrd, and coached by Hackner, has been humming along in Pool A play, mostly under the radar. But after a 6-5 win Monday afternoon over previously unbeaten Team Alberta-Bottcher (3-1, Calgary), skipped by Brendan Bottcher, people are starting to take notice.

“It’s incredible to bounce back after we had a tight one last night,” said Bonot, who won the 2017 Canadian Mixed curling championship and a World Mixed Championship silver medal the same year. “We knew, come out, play our game, stay patient and be gritty and make people make shots and that’s what we did.”

It was the latest upset at the Montana’s Brier. Earlier in the day Team Canada and Team Alberta-Koe were both beaten.

Bonot is no stranger to curling fans in the Thunder Bay area and has been knocking on the door of a Northern Ontario men’s crown for nearly 10 years. The team is a little short on Montana’s Brier experience, although McCarville did play on Jeff Currie’s provincial reps in 2014.

A big part of the team’s success has been the coaching of Hackner, a two-time Canadian and world champion.

“Al’s been a tremendous influence. Not just here or this week, even just getting to sit around and have a beer with him after Tuesday night league is a huge influence,” said Bonot of the curling legend known as the Iceman.

Team Bonot did it the hard way against Team Alberta-Bottcher. Down 5-4 playing the ninth, Bonot left Bottcher a tough double takeout to all but nail down a win. He just missed it, leaving behind a game-trying Bonot single.

Then in the 10th, Bonot made a crucial double takeout, and then Bottcher, attempting the game-winning draw to the four-foot, pulled the string and left it short of the house.

“We didn’t have much else we could do on my last,” said Bonot. “We did the best we could. We just got lucky he came up light.”

Bottcher could only tip his hat to Bonot and Co.

“I was just a little bit light,” he said. “I thought the ice was good today. I liked how I slid. I just didn’t quite have the release I needed. Lot of good teams here making a lot of good shots. Credit to those guys. They made me throw my last one.”

The win pulled Team Northern Ontario into a second-place tie with Team Alberta-Bottcher.

Team Manitoba-Carruthers (3-0, Winnipeg), skipped by Reid Carruthers, had the bye and is alone in top spot in Pool A.

Team Ontario, skipped by Scott Howard (2-2, Penetanguishene), moved up the ladder with an efficient 7-3 win over Team Newfoundland/Labrador (0-4, St. John’s), skipped by Andrew Symonds.

Team British Columbia (2-2, Victoria), skipped by Catlin Schneider, climbed alongside Howard in the standings with a 6-3 victory over skip James Grattan’s Team New Brunswick (0-3, Oromocto).

In the only other game on the afternoon docket, Team Manitoba-Dunstone (2-1, Winnipeg) whipped skip Thomas Scoffin’s Team Yukon (1-2, Whitehorse) 15-2 in eight ends.

The winner on March 10 will represent Canada at the men’s world championship, March 30 to April 7, in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

The 2024 Montana’s Brier continues Monday with a draw at 7 p.m. (all times Central).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2024 Montana’s Brier are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/

TSN and RDS will provide complete coverage of the 2024 Montana’s Brier. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule. Live coverage is also available for international streaming on TSN’s YouTube channel.

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