By the second end, all logic was swept aside – like a carbon-fibre curling brush – as the misses piled up
HALIFAX – Madness descended on the Scotiabank Centre Friday night with yet another wild playoff curling game at the 2025 Canadian Olympic Trials.
Brad Jacobs and his team eventually won a roller-coaster ride of a match over Matt Dunstone’s crew by a 9-8 scoreline to grab the advantage in the men’s best-of-three playoff.
The carrot at the end is Canada’s men’s fours berth at the Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games in February.
The game was a rematch of the 2025 Brier final in March and, at times, appeared almost crazier than the women’s first playoff final that was contested earlier on Friday.
In that one, Rachel Homan fought to keep her composure as the ice conditions disintegrated, but she and her Ottawa squad held on to defeat a stubborn Christina Black of the host city by a 5-4 scoreline.
“I think both teams could’ve done a little better than that,” Jacobs said after the game.
The 2014 Olympic champion pointed to additional warmth from the full building as a possible reason for the errors by both teams.
Early thinking was that a drop in rain and plunging Halifax temperatures would keep conditions fair for the men’s game, leaving athletic skill and emotional fortitude as the differential.
By the second end, all logic was swept aside – like a carbon-fibre curling brush – as the misses piled up.
Dunstone was first. Trailing 1-0 in the second, his final draw slipped heavy into the back rings for a steal of two, and a 3-0 Jacobs lead.
The Winnipeg skip did claw a deuce back in end three to trail 3-2, but his mates seemed to miss multiple sweeping calls in the fourth end. The result saw Calgary’s Jacobs draw to lie two on his first stone, and he repeated the shot to jump ahead 5-2.
The fifth end was an eye-popper. At one point it looked like a Dunstone disaster but in the end, Jacobs missed a takeout and Dunstone drew open for a whopping four-ender for a 6-5 lead.
As the athletes tried to recover during the fifth-end break, a Montana’s contest winner tried throwing a draw to the button for a $1 million dollar prize.
No dice.
The pros returned to try and do better and, generally speaking, they did. Jacobs grabbed a pair to retake the lead at 7-6, and two blank ends followed – with lots of stones in play early on, and with all of them cleaned out by the end.
In the ninth end, Dunstone massaged a deuce and an 8-7 lead when Jacobs just undercut a bullet double attempt. Battered and bruised, the combatants faced the 10th end.
And when Jacobs’ veteran lead Ben Hebert came light on a come-around, it was game on once again.
Dunstone second E.J. Harnden was a touch wide and heavy, however, and the stones were piling up in the rings with no less than four guards out front.
After a nifty bump and flop from Jacobs third Marc Kennedy, Dunstone third Colton Lott misfired and was heavy, allowing Kennedy to fire a missile to partially clean house.
Dunstone then missed his throw and Jacobs had a chance to tighten his grip – but he came a touch light on his come-around, giving Dunstone a chance to make a down-weight double.
It was a critical attempt, and Dunstone released… and despite power brushing he overcurled the target stone, flashing and giving Jacobs the 9-8 victory.
Game 2 gets underway at 7:00 p.m. (Atlantic) on Saturday evening, after the women’s Game 2 kicks off at 1:00 p.m.