2025 Brier underway Friday!

Team Gushue kicks off quest for fourth straight Montana’s Brier title Friday in Kelowna

More than a half-century of waiting will come to an end Friday night at Prospera Place as Kelowna welcomes back the Montana’s Brier for the first time since 1968.

The 2025 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI, will kick off Friday with three-time defending champion Team Brad Gushue hitting the ice against its counterparts from St. John’s, N.L., Team Newfoundland and Labrador, skipped by Ty Dilello.

It’ll be one of four games in the opening draw, which is set for 6:30 p.m. (all times Pacific).

The other Draw 1 matchups have the host team from British Columbia, Team Cameron de Jong (Victoria) taking on Manitoba’s Team Reid Carruthers (Winnipeg); Alberta’s Team Kevin Koe (Calgary) is up against Manitoba’s Team Matt Dunstone (Winnipeg); and Northern Ontario’s Team John Epping (Sudbury) faces off with New Brunswick’s Team James Grattan (Oromocto).

It’s part of what should be a lively opening night of the 2025 Montana’s Brier, wrapped up by a free concert at the Original 16 Patch featuring Canadian rock legends 54•40.

The field in Kelowna comprises Gushue’s Team Canada squad, 14 provincial/territorial champions and three 2023-24 Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) qualifiers split into two pools of nine.

Team Gushue, which will be chasing a record fourth straight Montana’s Brier title, joined 2023-24 CTRS qualifiers Team Dunstone, Team Brad Jacobs of Calgary and 2024 Montana’s Brier runner-up Team Mike McEwen of Saskatchewan as pre-qualified entries.

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.

The 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 12:30 p.m. on March 7, with the winners going directly to the Page playoff 1-2 game, while the losers meet the third-place finishers in the pools March 7 at 6:30 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 8, at 6:30 p.m., advancing directly to the final, and the loser plays the winner of the Page 3v4 game (scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on March 8) in the semifinal. 

The semifinal (Sunday, March 9, at 11 a.m.) winner takes on the winner of the Page 1v2 game in the gold-medal game at 5 p.m. on Sunday. The winner will represent Canada at the 2025 BKT Tires World Men’s Curling Championship March 29-April 6 in Moose Jaw, Sask.

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

(Teams listed according to overall seeding based on CTRS standings as of today, 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. Team Canada, Brad Gushue (Mark Nichols, Brendan Bottcher, Geoff Walker, Adam Casey, Jeff Hoffart; St. John’s, N.L.)
• 4. Manitoba-Dunstone, Matt Dunstone (Colton Lott, E.J. Harnden, Ryan Harnden, Adam Kingsbury, Caleb Flaxey; Winnipeg)
• 5. Northern Ontario, John Epping (Jacob Horgan, Tanner Horgan, Ian McMillan, Mike Harris; Sudbury)
• *-8. Alberta-Koe, Kevin Koe (Aaron Sluchinski, Tyler Tardi, Karrick Martin, Mike Libbus, John Dunn; Calgary)
• *-9. Manitoba-Carruthers, Reid Carruthers (B.J. Neufeld, Catlin Schneider, Connor Njegovan, Kyle Doering, Rob Meakin; Winnipeg)
• 12. British Columbia, Cameron de Jong (Alex Horvath, Corey Chester, Brayden Carpenter, Paul Cseke, Bryan Miki; Victoria)
• 13. New Brunswick, James Grattan (Joel Krats, Paul Dobson, Andy McCann, Drew Grattan, Dean Grattan; Oromocto)
• 16. Newfoundland/Labrador, Ty Dilello (Ryan McNeil Lamswood, Daniel Bruce, Aaron Feltham, Nathan King, Mike Mahon; St. John’s)
• 17. Nunavut, Shane Latimer (Sheldon Wettig, Justin McDonell, Peter Van Strien, Katie Brooks; Iqaluit)

Pool B

• 2. Alberta-Jacobs, Brad Jacobs (Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant, Ben Hebert, Mike Caione, Paul Webster; Calgary)
• 3. Saskatchewan-McEwen, Mike McEwen (Kevin Marsh [throws second stones], Colton Flasch [throws third stones], Daniel Marsh, Brent Laing, Pat Simmons; Saskatoon)
• *-6. Saskatchewan-Kleiter, Rylan Kleiter (Matthew Hall [throws second stones], Joshua Mattern [throws third stones], Trevor Johnson, John Mattern, Dean Kleiter; Saskatoon)
• 7. Ontario, Sam Mooibroek (Ryan Wiebe, Scott Mitchell, Nathan Steele, Gavin Lydiate, Jake Higgs; Whitby)
• 10. Quebec, Jean-Michel Ménard [throws third stones] (Félix Asselin [throws fourth stones], Martin Crête, Jean-François Trépanier, Pierre Charette; Glenmore/Valleyfield/Etchemin/Des Collines/Belvedere)
• 11. Nova Scotia, Owen Purcell (Luke Saunders, Scott Saccary, Ryan Abraham, Calan MacIsaac, Colleen Jones; Halifax)
• 14. Prince Edward Island, Tyler Smith (Adam Cocks, Christopher Gallant, Edward White, Paul Flemming; Crapaud)
• 15. Yukon, Thomas Scoffin (Kerr Drummond, Trygg Jensen, Joe Wallingham, Darren Moulding; Whitehorse)
• 18. Northwest Territories, Aaron Bartling (D’Arcy Delorey, Norman Bassett, Eric Preston, Adam Naugler; Hay River)

Note: Because some matchups featuring the pre-qualified teams were pre-set as part of ticket-marketing campaigns, the pools were adjusted based on the approved seeding methodology as worked on in collaboration with Curling Canada’s Athlete Council.

For the entire 2025 Montana’s Brier schedule, click here.

Single-draw tickets can be purchased online at curling.ca/tickets and in-person at the Prospera Place box office during regular business hours.

TSN/RDS, the official broadcast partners of Curling Canada’s Season of Champions, will provide complete coverage of the 2025 Montana’s Brier. CLICK HERE for the broadcast schedule.