Team Alberta scores key win in heavyweight battle at Montana’s Brier

A team from Manitoba. A team from Alberta. Put them together on the same sheet of curling ice with plenty at stake at the Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI, and watch the drama unfold.

That was the storyline Tuesday evening at the Canadian men’s curling championship and, sure enough, there was plenty of drama over 10 ends.

It turned out to be a tension-reliever for skip Brendan Bottcher who sweated out a 7-5 win with his Team Alberta-Bottcher (4-1, Calgary) over Team Manitoba-Dunstone (3-2, Winnipeg) in one of four Pool A games at the Brandt Centre in Regina.

The win was all important. It crept Team Alberta-Bottcher one step closer to a playoff spot that goes to the top three teams in the pool, and made sure that in a tiebreaker situation it would have a leg up on Team Manitoba-Dunstone.

“We came out and played really well today,” said Bottcher, the 2021 Montana’s Brier winner and No. 2-ranked team in the world who is joined by vice-skip Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant, lead Ben Hebert and coach Paul Webster. “We had 36 hours off after a heart-breaking loss yesterday. It would have been easy to come out and have some cobwebs or have that carry over and I thought we came out and played great.

The loss dropped Team Manitoba-Dunstone to fourth place in the standings but still safely within distance of the playoffs with two days of round-robin play remaining.

It was a nip-and-tuck affair as expected between two of the best teams in the country. Team Manitoba-Dunstone cracked the only three in the game in the seventh end to go up 5-4, but Dunstone had an unfortunate jam in the eighth that led to a Team Alberta-Bottcher deuce.

Dunstone made a decision to concede one point to keep the hammer in the 10th. Down by two, he was looking for a game-winning three coming home, but was run out of rocks. 

“Thought we turned the tide in seven,” said Dunstone who led his team to a silver-medal finish at the Montana’s Brier last year in London, Ont. “Got pretty unlucky on my last one in eight, jammed there and changed the landscape of the game. That goes, we get the force, tied up playing nine, I like our chances. I like the odds of at least having a chance to score three to win the game. I don’t like the odds of stealing.” 

There were other significant games Tuesday, including a 7-4 triumph by Team Northern Ontario (5-1, Thunder Bay), skipped by Trevor Bonot, over skip Catlin Schneider’s Team British Columbia (3-3, Victoria). The win kept the team from Thunder Bay alone in first place in the pool.

Meanwhile, Team Ontario (3-3, Penetanguishene), skipped by Scott Howard, kept its playoff hopes alive with an 8-3 win over skip Thomas Scoffin’s Team Yukon (1-4, Whitehorse).

In the other game on the evening docket, Team Manitoba-Carruthers (4-1, Winnipeg), skipped by Brad Jacobs, moved into a second-place tie in Pool A after posting a 7-3 triumph over skip James Grattan’s Team New Brunswick (0-5, Oromocto).

Carruthers knew he’d have his hands full with Team New Brunswick despite its record.

“That’s a great team,” said Carruthers, who throws third stones. “I kind of looked at that this week as one of those games where it doesn’t matter what their record is, I knew they would play well. James himself is a big-game player so I figured playing against a high-seeded team in the event he would show up and he certainly did.”

Team Newfoundland & Labrador (1-4, St. John’s), skipped by Andrew Symonds, had the Pool A bye.

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 Wednesday with draws at 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (all times Central Standard).

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