Manitoba skip rallies at Montana’s Brier after Scotties final coaching loss

Less than a week ago, Reid Carruthers was walking out of a near-empty arena late Sunday night with a disappointed team after losing in the final of the 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Carruthers has coached Team Kerri Einarson for four years now, winning two Scotties titles in that run, and, considering the tumultuous season the Gimli team has endured, merely getting to the Scotties final before losing to Team Canada, skipped by Rachel Homan, could be considered a huge achievement.

But losing . . . well, it’s never fun. The good thing is that Carruthers had no time to dwell on it; just a quick dash home to do laundry and swap out the blue Manitoba uniforms he wore in Thunder Bay for the brown ones he’s wearing this week at the 2025 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI.

And so far, so good — Carruthers and his Winnipeg squad of vice-skip B.J. Neufeld, second Catlin Schneider, lead Connor Njegovan, alternate Kyle Doering and coach Rob Meakin — are off to a perfect 2-0 start at Prospera Place in Kelowna, B.C., the latest win coming Saturday night, 14-2 over Newfoundland and Labrador’s Team Ty Dilello (0-2; St. John’s).

“It’s fortunate that Thunder Bay was where it was hosted, right? So it was a seven-hour drive (to get back to Winnipeg),” said Carruthers. “I got home and off to practice with the men’s team. But yeah, obviously very proud of the ladies. I feel like I had a nice 48-hour reset on the brain and still kind of stayed a little bit in curling mode and off we went (to Kelowna).”

The Manitobans stole their way to a big early lead on Saturday. After being forced to a single in the first, Team Carruthers had the Newfoundland and Labrador champs in big trouble in the second. Dilello had to try a tough double takeout to score, but barely made contact with the target stone and left everything else in play, gifting Team Carruthers a steal of four.

The steals kept coming — two in the third, two more in the fourth — before Newfoundland and Labrador hit the scoreboard with a fifth-end deuce.

After a blanked sixth, Carruthers scored four more in the seventh and stole another in the eighth to prompt the concession.

“Yeah, better than yesterday,” said Carruthers, who had a big early lead in his Friday night opener but to hang on at the end for a 6-5 win over British Columbia’s Team Cameron de Jong. “We had a good debrief after the game yesterday; just about some of the things that we could learn from the ice, and I feel like we applied that today.”

In fact, Carruthers wasn’t the only member of the team to have a quick turnaround. Njegovan was coaching Manitoba’s Team Kaitlyn Lawes in Thunder Bay, and the two were granted permission to throw rocks between games in Thunder Bay under strict conditions (non-prepared ice after scheduled Scotties draws; throwing stones that weren’t being used in Scotties games, as examples) to stay in some semblance of form.

Certainly not the same as some of the four- or five-day training camps many of their. peers had leading into the Montana’s Brier, but that’s the price both men are willing to pay as they pursue their coaching ambitions with their respective teams. 

“To be honest, there are obviously some benefits, too,” said Carruthers. “Even when I do the early season junior camps, I find that you’re talking about the things that you want to focus on with your own team, even on yourself — your own game.

“So I find that the week with the ladies, not only does it bring that aspect, but also the inspiration. Seeing Rachel and Kerri go at it in a national final — how do you not get fired up?”

In other Saturday night games, Manitoba’s Team Matt Dunstone (2-0; Winnipeg) was a 13-2 winner over Nunavut’s Team Shane Latimer (0-1; Iqaluit); Team Canada, skipped by Brad Gushue (2-0; St. John’s, N.L.) turned back British Columbia (0-2; Victoria) 5-3; and Northern Ontario’s Team John Epping (2-0; Sudbury) knocked off Alberta’s Team Kevin Koe (0-2; Calgary).

New Brunswick’s Team James Grattan (0-1; Oromocto) had the Pool A bye on Saturday night.

The Montana’s Brier continues Sunday with draws at 8:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. (all times Pacific).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2025 Montana’s Brier are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/.

TSN and RDS2 will provide complete coverage of the 2025 Montana’s Brier. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2025 Montana’s Brier, go to www.curling.ca/2025brier/tickets/

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2025brier/nouvelles/?lang=fr