Five takeaways from the 2025 Montana's Brier

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The 2025 Montana’s Brier came down to Sunday’s late winner-take-all championship draw.

The finale between Alberta’s Brad Jacobs and Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone — won by Jacobs in thrilling 5-3 fashion that came down to the last rock of the event — capped what was another stellar week featuring the best of the best of the nation’s top male athletes in the sport.

And while there were the constants — those aspects of the 10 days that were all too obviously expected — there were also a few items that turned our heads and perhaps altered our impressions of the men’s curling scene.

Here are five takeaways from the Brier in Kelowna, B.C. …

1. Grand finale … Who knew?

We did. The championship draw boiled down to two very worthy adversaries — not a surprise given the depth of Canada’s curling teams on the men’s side. Truly, it’s a stacked measure, with so many stars combining to form super rinks that line up against each other, separated only by small margins. So we knew what was coming Sunday evening would be an epic meeting of two major teams, with little to distinguish between them but ‘one being on the right side of the inch’ — a phrase heard often in curling circles, for good reason — to claim the Canadian men’s curling championship.

Case in point, it was Jacobs falling on the right side of the inches in Sunday’s afternoon semifinal, earning a 7-5 win to knock off defending three-time champion Brad Gushue. After executing a number of key shots in the semi — including a pin-point angle-raise double-takeout in the eighth end to count three — the super skip from St. John’s, N.L., was heavy with hammer in the deciding 10th end, allowing Jacobs to hold on to the victory.

“That was a heavyweight bout,” Jacobs told reporters. “It’s so rewarding as an athlete to be part of that … and then what can I say? We got the biggest break of the year.”

Added Gushue, “A lot of disappointment and a lot of heartbreak for my teammates. Obviously when you have a shot to win the game and you don’t do it, you feel bad for your teammates, because they put me in a position to win that game and I threw it six feet harder than I needed to throw it. Just unfortunate.”

2. They are who we thought they were

Coming in, the focus was on the fave four — and, again, there was good reason for such a statement. The rinks skipped by Dunstone, Jacobs, Mike McEwen and Gushue were respectively ranked one through four on the 2024-25 Canadian Team Ranking System — the list used to rate the teams heading into the Brier. And so, there they were at Kelowna’s Prospera Place, rolling through teams in the round robin to finish with a remarkable 29-3 combined record to slot them into the top four playoff spots. Indeed, the big-shot rinks didn’t disappoint, with big shots galore on the pebbled ice to entertain us right through Sunday.

3. Wait … There’s more

Yes … the truth is there’s room for even more depth and parity moving forward. While it’s easy to pick out the cream of the crop right now, the Brier proved there’s more sides on the rise. Young teams bossed by Owen Purcell, Ryan Kleiter and Sam Mooibroek were in the mix right through Friday, giving their more experienced foes a run for their money and sending messages they will be future forces in the sport. Purcell and his Nova Scotia champions even made the playoffs, surprisingly foisting himself into the contending picture with the Brier’s big-shots. What a push that was — one to remember moving forward as part of the next wave of curling contenders on the men’s landscape.

4. High Five, actually

The fave-four teams coming into the event were essentially the top four going out … with one small exception. As he is wont to do during crunch time, Manitoba’s Reid Carruthers pushed his way into the conversation, even brushing aside McEwen in an elimination game. The Manitoba veteran of 13 Briers also nearly stole the 3-v-4 Page playoff game from Jacobs, proving he’s got all the talent of the skips on the fave four. Not a surprise, really, given Carruthers is dutifully decorated and his foursome is as fierce as any out there. Their success was only a surprise given the many changes to the lineup, including the very late addition of third B.J. Neufeld.

5. Changes? What changes?

Yes … the Carruthers shuffle — from losing skip Jacobs last spring and long-time teammate Derek Samagalski to adding Catlin Schneider and Neufeld — was well-documented. Same goes for Jacobs joining the Calgary crew which dropped Brendan Bottcher, Gushue swapping in Bottcher for E.J. Harnden, Dunstone dropping Neufeld in favour of Harnden and John Epping teaming up with Northern Ontario talents. It went on and on and on, to the point where we needed a program to keep up with all the lineup changes. But in the end, all those teams came together to find enough chemistry for success at the Brier. The alterations, really, just added to the drama to further our enjoyment of the annual championship.

tsaelhof@postmedia.com

X: @ToddSaelhofPM