Playoffs Day 2 at the Brier: Three teams left standing for Sunday's final day
Alberta's Brad Jacobs secures spot in semifinal with 3-v-4 win over Manitoba's Reid Carruthers
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And then there were three.
But it’s a trio of curling teams expecting to be in this position with just Sunday’s pair of games left to decide the 2025 Montana’s Brier champions.
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Playoffs Day 2 at the Brier: Three teams left standing for Sunday's final day Back to video
Defending three-time champion Brad Gushue and his Canada crew …
Matt Dunstone and his Manitoba men, the top-ranked team in the nation …
And Brad Jacobs and his Alberta party, as decorated of a rink as they come in the country.
Only one will hoist the trophy late Sunday after the championship finale in Kelowna, B.C. (8 p.m. ET/TSN).
“It was the goal to try to get to Sunday at the Brier,” Jacob’s third Marc Kennedy told reporters, moments after they secured their spot for the final day. “We worked really hard to get here. And I think we’re comfortable with our preparation, and we’ll just go out there and play loose and let ’er fly.
“I mean … we could play and amazing game (Sunday) and still lose — that’s the quality of curling in our country right now,” continued Kennedy. “And that’s OK because we feel really good about where we are and we’ve given ourselves a chance to win.”
The crew from Calgary’s Glencoe Club did just that with Saturday afternoon’s win over Reid Carruthers in the 3-v-4 Page playoff contest.
The 6-5 decision vaulted Jacobs, Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert through to Sunday’s semifinal at Prospera Place (2 p.m. ET/TSN).
Later Saturday, it was the 1-v-2 Page playoff game to decide one of Sunday’s finalists, and that went to Dunstone after a 7-4 win over Gushue.
Needing two to draw even in the 10th end, the super skip from St. John’s, N.L., couldn’t execute a double take-out with last rock, allowing the Winnipeg rink to steal one and take the contest.
With that, Gushue meets Jacobs in the semi, with the winner playing Dunstone in the final.
For Jacobs & Co., Saturday’s performance yielded their second straight triumph as part of four consecutive victories they’ll need to earn the title after dropping their first game of the event Friday afternoon.
“Two (wins) to go, so nice little mindset to have, I think — and we have hammer for (the semifinal),” Jacobs told reporters. “We’re in a pretty good spot. We’re giving ourselves every opportunity that we can give ourselves to try to win this thing. And I’m just really confident in the guys.
“We’re just going to keep fightin’,” continued Jacobs. “We’re just going to keep battling and keep trying to put points on the board.”
Their fightin’ spirit Saturday came down to last rock against Carruthers, with skip Jacobs executing a clean and routine hit-and-stick shot to count the deciding point.
It capped a matinee dominated by the Calgary charges, who jumped out to 5-2 lead through seven ends with deuces in the fifth and seventh frames.
The team from Winnipeg’s Granite Curling Club was then held to one in the eighth.
“The way it was going in the second half of the game, to have it tied up in the last end was a surprise to us,” Carruthers told reporters. “A couple shots, I feel like I didn’t have my eyes on the sheet quite as well. The last couple of games, I really knew exactly where the broom needed to go and what the spots on the sheet were doing.”
But true to the spirit of the rink in what was an outstanding performance all week, Carruthers & Co. battled back to steal two in the ninth — after Jacobs only removed one rock on a quasi-triple attempt — and set up last-end drama.
“We pulled out the win,” Jacobs said. “My guys made everything in the last end, and we were able to bounce back even though I threw one up my butt there in nine.”
A key double in the 10th end by Kennedy certainly helped the Calgary side.
“Felt good about it,” Kennedy told reporters. “I know Brad missed a couple in nine, but here’s the thing with Brad …
“He’s been our best player all week, and it was really easy for us to rally behind him in that 10th end, right?” continued Kennedy. “He hasn’t missed anything. So we said as a group, let’s have a great 10th end here and give him the easiest shot possible — and we did. That’s a credit to his leadership and how much we wanted to make some good ones for him.”
Kennedy himself curled a wowzer 99% in the 3-v-4 victory.
And the team was a sparkling 95% — tough execution for any opponent to overcome.
“That was once again one of our best games all week, I would say,” Jacobs said, “Besides the little mess-up I had in nine there.”
Carruthers, however, was disappointed with his side’s effort — 85% — and especially with his own 78% mark in the loss.
“We were a little flat out there,” Carruthers, whose team finished 7-3 at the Brier, told reporters. “(Saturday), there were a couple of shots where I put the broom down and we were getting half-shots where, all week, we kind of haven’t had that. The ice was a little different than what it was (Friday) night — it was great, but I didn’t pick up on it as well as I should have.
“But it was a heck of a week — we had a blast. It’s obviously disappointing lost, but we lost to a great team and there’s a lot to be proud of.”
The Brier winner advances to the 2025 BKT Tires World Men’s Curling Championship, March 29-April 6 in Moose Jaw, Sask.
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