Sheriff Dunstone Corrals Koe

Some impressive shotmaking by Kevin Koe kept Team Alberta alive early in a game versus Matt Dunstone’s Wild Card 2 on Monday evening. Fans both inside and outside the Enmax Arena celebrated the display.

But Dunstone remained unflappable, making a number of key shots as well, and capitalized on some late-game errors by Koe to win a Brier game that could have a major impact on who takes first place in Pool A.

“That might have been the most fun game I’ve been a part of in a long time,” said Dunstone. “Rocks in play pretty much every single end, the kind of shots that were made, you can go down the list, a couple chirps here and there too. It was a lot of fun to be a part of that.”

With Pool A separating out into a distinct lead pack and chase pack, that game was one of two Monday evening tilts that saw the pool’s top playoff contenders going head-to-head. Another pair of matchups pitted teams against each other with three losses each, fighting to stay in the picture.

After giving up a steal of one in the first end, Koe made a perfectly delivered angle raise for two, taking a 2-1 lead. The shot energized his teammates and the Alberta fans in the audience, while Koe remained typically restrained.

After a blank third end, the fourth end saw a pile of rocks in play, allowing both skips to demonstrate top shotmaking. With Dunstone lying three, Koe eyed hitting a fourth Dunstone stone in the upper 12-foot as a way to get a lot of granite moving. His shot, executed perfectly, drove four of Dunstone’s stones from the rings and drew an uncharacteristic broom raise and smile for Koe—whose daughters, watching the game live, cheered enthusiastically, bringing a grin to John Morris’ face.

With three of Koe’s rocks and one of Dunstone’s left in the house, Dunstone responded by sinking a draw right to the button, buried behind the cluster of stones that were left at the top of the rings. Koe made a multiple to remove Dunstone’s counter, leaving his own stone lying shot rock under cover. Dunstone replied with an angle raise to remove Koe’s counter and score two, taking a 3-2 lead.

The skips continued to play high stakes ends with lots of rocks in play. Two more deuces for Koe and a three-count for Dunstone left the score at 6-6 going into the eighth end.

Dunstone took a single in the eighth, leaving Koe down one with hammer in the ninth. Koe was looking for a blank, but a hit and roll to lie under cover by Dunstone set Koe up for a miss. The steal of one made the score 8-6 going into the 10th end.

In the final frame, Dunstone piled three counters around the button and there was no play left for Koe this time. He shook hands without throwing his final stone.

Asked in the post-game interviews if his team had made a statement in this game, Dunstone responded:

“I think it is. Absolutely. To be completely honest with you I thought we dominated almost every end of that game. So I’m really proud of the guys for that. And you know, I really do think this was a bit of a statement game for us.”

In the other Pool A match-up between top contenders on Monday evening, Brendan Bottcher’s Team Canada took on Colton Flasch’s Saskachewan in another match where the lead changed hands several times. In the end, Canada prevailed 8-6 which leaves Bottcher undefeated and Flasch with two losses.

Among the three-loss teams, Glenn Howard’s Ontario marked their first win of the tournament with a 5-4 victory over James’s Grattan’s New Brunswick, and Tyler Smith’s Prince Edward Island scored their first win in a 6-4 victory over Nathan Young’s Team Newfoundland and Labrador.

The results of the evening leave Pool A with a chase pack of five teams all sitting at 1-3, while the top four teams in the pool have only three losses between them. Undefeated Bottcher and Dunstone are left in the best shape to battle for top spot in the pool, while Flasch is hot the heels of the one-loss Koe team.

Earlier on Monday, in a much tighter Pool B, the afternoon draw saw a key matchup between Paul Flemming’s Nova Scotia and James Gunnlaugson’s Wild Card 3. The teams traded the lead several times, going to an extra end, where Nova Scotia used the hammer to score a 7-6 victory.

That makes the match between Nova Scotia and Mike McEwen’s Manitoba a key battle on Tuesday morning, with both of those teams in the hunt for playoff spots in Pool B.

Tuesday morning will also feature a battle of brothers—not named Koe—as Marc Kennedy of Northern Ontario meets his older brother Glen Kennedy, who plays third for the Northwest Territories.