There were six Olympic medals on the Halifax ice in the men’s championship series, which didn’t need a third and final match
HALIFAX – Twelve years after winning Olympic curling gold – and some 16 months after joining his current team – Brad Jacobs is heading back to the Winter Olympiad.
Calgary’s Jacobs, who replaced former skip Brendan Bottcher in April of 2024, defeated Winnipeg’s Matt Dunstone 6-5 to sweep the best-of-three Olympic Trials finale at Scotiabank Centre.
In a cautious first end, Matt Dunstone made a call with fellow Manitoban Colton Lott and slid down the ice planning to throw a come-around to lie two. Halfway down, his Ontario front-enders – E.J. and Ryan Harnden – changed the call to a hit and roll, which the skip made perfectly to lie two.
Jacobs’ last stone was a hit and roll – not a draw – which he then made perfectly.
Were the teams still spooked from the previous night’s playing conditions?
There were no signs of that in the next end, which saw high centre guards dictate play and Jacobs nursing a steal stone touching the button. Dunstone was left with a tight draw to the edge of the cup and despite strong brushing he fell short, and Jacobs led 2-0.
In the third end Dunstone chose to ignore two counters and threw a draw around a centre guard. This time there were no differing suggestions from his front end, and Dunstone sank the draw nicely. It did overcurl a hair, and Jacobs tried to chase it the other way – but wrecked, and Dunstone drew to tie the match at 2-2.
In trouble in the fourth end, Jacobs third Marc Kennedy made a tremendous runback triple to upset a Dunstone steal threat. Facing another counter after a lovely and very wide Dunstone come-around, Jacobs came short. One in-house guard later, Jacobs tried a long angle runback and was a bit fortunate, ticking the shot stone a couple of inches away to count one.
After a fifth-end blank and Dunstone single in six, Jacobs scored a deuce with a down-weight double. Dunstone didn’t spread his counters enough and Kennedy was able to pound the second stone out of the rings.
The 5-3 lead after seven proved to be critical.
Dunstone made a fabulous open draw on his first stone – that might sound strange, but it’s true – of the eighth end, and Jacobs gambled on a super-thin double and made it, energizing the crowd and forcing Dunstone to a single.
One end later, Jacobs made a hit to allow a steal of one for Dunstone, which tied the game 5-5.
Going back to the 2022 Olympic season, the statistics said Jacobs had an 87.5% chance of winning the match in 10 ends with last rock.
Meanwhile, Dunstone has stolen a win 25% of the time in this situation since the 2021 Trials.
Coming home, Team Jacobs did miss one of their double peel attempts, giving Dunstone a sniff. The boys in blue alternated between drawing in and throwing guards, but their steal stone wasn’t in the best position, biting the back of the button.
Dunstone third Colton Lott came a bit heavy on his last guard, and Kennedy made the double peel, also spilling a third stone. After a brilliant freeze from Dunstone, Jacobs made a shot previous curling generations wouldn’t even try – and which your humble writer can’t really describe – a kind of tick-double, which left one of his stones wide open in the back four-foot.
Dunstone froze again – not quite as well as his first – and as the arena erupted in cheers, Jacobs made the hit for the 6-5 victory.
Four years ago, Jacobs and Marc Kennedy were teammates with Dunstone’s front end, E.J. and Ryan – and they lost the Olympic Trials final to Brad Gushue in Saskatoon.
Kennedy was then picked by Gushue to join the Olympic team (which featured Jacobs second Brett Gallant) as alternate, where he shared in the bronze medal.
Kennedy and Jacobs lead Ben Hebert were teammates with Hall of Fame skip Kevin Martin from 2006 to 2013 – winning Olympic gold at Vancouver 2010 – and then teammates with Kevin Koe for four years, where they finished out of the medals at PyeongChang 2018.
Jacobs, of course, teamed with the Harndens – his cousins – to win Olympic gold at Sochi 2014.
Altogether there were six Olympic medals on the ice in the men’s championship series.
Unlike the women’s champion Rachel Homan team – that will not defend their Canadian title in January before Cortina – Team Jacobs is expected to compete at the Brier, the Canadian men’s championship, at St. John’s in March.
First up are two Grand Slam events and then its the Olympic Winter Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. As Team Canada, the Jacobs contingent will open the 25th Winter Games on Feb. 11, against Germany’s Marc Muskatewitz.
Gallant will be in Italy even earlier, competing in the mixed doubles discipline with his wife Jocelyn Peterman. The pair begin play on Feb. 4 against one of the last-chance Olympic qualifiers, to be decided next month in Kelowna, B.C.
There isn’t even a full day off between the mixed doubles gold medal game and the start of the men’s fours round robin.
Team Jacobs finished 8-1 in Halifax to Dunstone’s 5-5. Mike McEwen’s foursome placed second in the round robin and finished third at 5-3, while defending champion Brad Gushue, who won his first Trials title here in 2005, finished 4-3.
John Epping and Kevin Koe finished 3-4, with Rylan Kleiter at 2-5 and Jordon McDonald 1-6.