Team B.C. pulls the rug from underneath Manitoba’s Team Carruthers at Montana’s Brier

The last undefeated team has fallen at the 2024 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI, in Regina.

Team Manitoba-Carruthers (3-1, Winnipeg), skipped by Brad Jacobs, had been rolling along unbeaten but ran into an open switch Tuesday at the Brandt Centre to fall out of first place in Pool A play.

“Hey, we’re right there,” said skip Catlin Schneider, who guided Team British Columbia (3-2, Victoria) to a narrow 9-8 win over the Manitobans in a back-and-forth battle that went down to the wire.

 “We knew this was a must-win and now that we did it we have to not worry about the past anymore and just keep winning.”

The loss opened things up in Pool A as the nine teams continued to sort themselves out in the bumper-to-bumper race for the top three playoff positions.

Schneider was overjoyed to remain in the thicks of things at the Canadian men’s curling championship.

Schneider, playing in his fourth Brier, fell behind early but held the hammer coming home tied 8-8. Jacobs forced him to draw full eight-foot to win, and he made it perfectly.

“We had to stay patient,” said Schneider, backed up by third Jason Ginter, second Sterling Middleton, lead Alex Horvath, alternate Bryan Miki and Catlin’s father Jamie Schneider as coach. “We gave up a three in the second end, kind of unfortunate. I didn’t hit the rocks where I wanted to. Tried a double and neither of the rocks left the house. Guess I’ll have to do a couple more squats and throw a little harder.”

Team Northern Ontario (4-1, Thunder Bay), skipped by Trevor Bonot, took advantage of the Manitoba-Carruthers loss to slip into first place in the pool after scoring a 10-6 win over skip Scott Howard’s Team Ontario (2-3, Penetanguishene).

The team from the Forth William Curling Club hasn’t earned a playoff spot yet, but a couple more wins should secure one nicely.

“It wasn’t our best game as a group but we made enough shots at the right time,” said Bonot. “We’re really happy to be 4-1, I’ll say that.”

It was the annual renewal of the Battle of Ontario and Bonot was happy to win it.

“It always feels nice to win that battle,” he said. “We’re really proud to be from the north. It’s a fun little rivalry for sure.”

One team from Manitoba did make a move on Tuesday. Team Manitoba-Dunstone (3-1, Winnipeg), skipped by Matt Dunstone, yielded a four-ender but survived to post a 9-6 win over Team New Brunswick (0-4, Oromocto), skipped by James Grattan. 

In another game Tuesday, Team Newfoundland & Labrador (1-4, St. John’s), skipped by Andrew Symonds, hit the win column after defeating skip Thomas Scoffin’s Team Yukon (1-3, Whitehorse) 6-5 in an extra end. Symonds needed to draw the button to win. 

Team Alberta-Bottcher (3-1, Calgary), skipped by Brendan Bottcher, 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 Tuesday with draws at 2 p.m. and 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