Tuckers showdown!

Team McDonald pulls off first-round upset in battle of young tucking skips at PointsBet Invitational

On paper, it was a battle of fourth seeds and the 13th seeds, and the math would tend to favour the team at the upper end of that equation.

But Wednesday night at the WinSport Event Centre in men’s Sweep 16 action at the 2024 PointsBet Invitational, Matt Dunstone, the skip of the aforementioned fourth-seeded men’s team in the 16-team field, surely knew the math was deceiving and that his team would be in for a tussle against the rapidly rising young 13th-seeded Jordon McDonald team in an all-Winnipeg clash featuring two toe-sliding last-rock throwers.

And if Dunstone, whose team finished runners-up (to Team Reid Carruthers both times) in the first two editions of the PointsBet Invitational, did indeed have those premonitions, they certainly came true as Team McDonald eked out an 8-5 win to move into the Elite 8.

“Playing a team like that, for us, is like a really big experience,” said McDonald, 21, whose team is rounded out by vice-skip Dallas Burgess, second Elias Huminicki, lead Cam Olafson and coach William Lyburn. “We’re lucky enough to have played Reid (Carruthers) and Mike (McEwen) in the last year, and that’s kind of given us more confidence, having good games with them.”

The confidence carried into Wednesday night’s game — the first time McDonald has taken on Dunstone.

It was a back-and-forth game with no shortage of momentum swings — Team McDonald took its first lead in the fifth end, taking three to go up 3-2, only to see Dunstone make a magnificent 25-foot angle-raise takeout to score two.

But Team McDonald would get that deuce right back in the seventh to retake the lead before the teams swapped singles in the eighth and ninth.

With time running out in the 10th for both teams, McDonald made a stunning triple-takeout with his first to remove any possibility of a game-winning deuce for Dunstone, and then followed up with a precise tap to sit three. Dunstone’s attempt at an angle-raise takeout wasn’t on target and Team McDonald stole two for the win.

“It’s just great for our our confidence and we just feel like we can hang with these teams a little more,” said McDonald, 21, a former recipient of Curling Canada’s For The Love of Curling Scholarship. “We had the ice down really well. I think that’s the best we’ve managed the ice all year for sure, so I was super happy with my team. We got a lot of rocks in great spots,and we forced them to play a lot of tough shots.”

Team McDonald didn’t qualify for the PointsBet Invitational until a few weeks ago, when it won the men’s title at the U-25 NextGen Classic in Edmonton. Now, it has $8,000 in the bank so far at the PointsBet Invitational heading into its Elite 8 clash Friday against fifth-seeded Team Kevin Koe of Calgary.

“Oh, that’s huge for us,” said McDonald of its winnings (each team earns $5,000 for travel expenses, and Sweep 16 winners pocket $3,000 more). “For us younger teams, sponsorship can be tough sometimes, so this helps us fund our season and allows us to travel and play in bigger events and move up in the rankings.”

In other Wednesday night Sweep 16 games, Team Koe was an 8-4 winner over No. 11 Team Joshua Bryden of Regina; top-seeded Team Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., rolled to a 12-4 win over No. 16 Team Dan Sherrard of Edmonton; and No. 8 seed Team Rylan Kleiter of Saskatoon downed No. 9 Team Sam Mooibroek (Whitby, Ont.) 5-2.

The 2024 PointsBet Invitational continues Thursday with a women’s Sweep 16 draw at 1 p.m. and the final men’s Sweep 16 draw at 6 p.m.

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2024 PointsBet Invitational are available by CLICKING HERE.

TSN and RDS will provide coverage of the 2024 PointsBet Invitational. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2024 PointsBet Invitational, go to www.curling.ca/2024pointsbetinvitational/tickets/.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2024pointsbetinvitational/nouvelles/?lang=fr