Canada’s Team Jacobs falls to Scotland in BKT World Men’s championship semifinal

It should be remembered as one of the finest displays of championship curling ever — a game that it was a shame someone had to lose.

And to the disappointment of almost all of the sellout crowd at the Temple Gardens Centre Saturday afternoon in the semifinal of the 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship, it was Canada’s Team Brad Jacobs that couldn’t pull it out in the end.

The home team, 11-1 in the round robin, bowed 7-4 to the only team it lost to earlier this week, Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat, and as a result, will play for bronze Sunday at 9 a.m. (all times Central Standard) against China’s Team Xiaoming Xu.

The Scots, meanwhile, will play for their second gold medal on Canadian soil in three years Sunday at 3 p.m. against Switzerland’s Team Yannick Schwaller after winning the world title in 2023 in Ottawa.

“We tried,” said Jacobs, who barely missed on a slash double takeout in the 10th end for the potential victory. “What can I say? We fought. We battled. We tried. They were better than us today. But we’re going to regroup here and come out and try to get ourselves on the podium and get a bronze medal.”

It was a simply magnificent effort from both teams Saturday. The Canadian team — Jacobs is backed up by vice-skip Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant, lead Ben Hebert, alternate Tyler Tardi, team coach Paul Webster and national coach Jeff Stoughton — actually outcurled the Scots percentage-wise 93-89, with front end of Hebert and Gallant scored at 100 and 99 respectively.

But in the end, it was Scotland’s vice-skip Grant Hardie who dictated the game in the early going with a series of precision shots that essentially turned Canada’s first-end hammer advantage into a 4-2 Scottish lead through six ends, as he repeatedly snuffed out Canadian opportunities to score multiple points.

“I think it comes down to experience for us,” said Mouat. “We’ve been in this situation a few times and we’ve obviously had to battle through. We’ve maybe not had our best week but we definitely had our best games today against Sweden (in the Qualification Round earlier Saturday) and against Canada.”

Jacobs had the pro-Canadian crowd on its feet when he made a tough double-takeout for a game-tying deuce in the seventh, and momentum seemed to be on the Canadians’ side in the home stretch as the Scots were forced to take a single in the eighth.

After a blanked ninth, Canada had the decision on Jacobs’ last stone to either make a draw to the four-foot for the game-tying single and give hammer to Scotland in the extra end or go for the win with the slash attempt.

It wasn’t a tough decision, said Jacobs. 

“We’re always going to play for the win there,” he said. “I think we know the odds are stacked against us playing Scotland in an extra end, especially when (Scottish second) Bobby Lammie makes every double peel in the world. You know, he’s very, very good at that. Hey, we were close.”

They were, but the end result is that Canada’s gold-medal drought dating back to 2017 will continue, despite a valiant effort in Moose Jaw.

“The reality of international curling now, and with how good all of the teams are, long gone are the days where Canada is just owning gold and silver in international play,” said Jacobs. “Hey, we fought, we tried, we were doing everything we could to try to win the Worlds this week. And for whatever reason, it wasn’t meant to be.

“But make no mistake, we’re going to try to fight hard tomorrow against China. We want to get ourselves on the podium and hold our heads high and win our last game here. And we’re going to fight hard for Canada to do that.”

While this week won’t end with Team Jacobs on the top step of the medal podium, it was a significant accomplishment for a team that is still in its first year with Jacobs at skip.

“We took a big step this year as a team,” said Hebert. “And I think this gave us a lot of belief for next year, which our ultimate goal is to represent Canada at the Olympic Games and winning those (Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials). Winning the Brier gives us good belief that we can do that again. And if we play like this, we’re going to have a good chance at an Olympic medal if we get there.”

In the other semi, the Swiss had little trouble in dispatching China 7-3.

Switzerland scored deuces with last rock in the first and fifth ends, and added a stolen deuce in the sixth, and will try to win a first gold medal since Team Markus Eggler prevailed in 1992 at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

The loss ended China’s ambitions of qualifying directly for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy, and meant the Czech Republic earned the eighth and final berth that was on the line in Moose Jaw.

Upon the conclusion of the 2025 BKT World Men’s Championship, World Curling is expected to announce that Canada, Sweden, Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, Norway and the Czech Republic will join host Italy in the 2026 Olympic field.

The final two qualifying countries will be determined at the Olympic Qualifying Event in December in Kelowna, B.C.

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship are available by CLICKING HERE.

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For ticket information for the 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship, go to www.curling.ca/2025worldmen/tickets/.

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