MEDICINE HAT, Alta. — And still champion: Matt Dunstone and his Canadian club have successfully defended the P&H Masters men's title.
Dunstone defeats Scotland's Team Bruce Mouat 7-6 in Sunday's final at Co-op Place.
It was Dunstone's third title win in the Grand Slam of Curling presented by Molson Canadian, with all three coming at the Masters.
The Winnipeg skip, who won his first at the event in 2019, said it felt great, especially with super spare Colton Flasch filling in at second this week with Mark Nichols out due to an upper-body injury.
"I mean, you don't know what you're going to get with Flasch stepping in, new guy coming to the team," said Dunstone, whose crew also includes third Colton Lott and lead Ryan Harnden. "He was great all week, had a lot of fun with him. Obviously, missing Mark on a day like today for sure, but I can't wait to have him back and be able to do this with him as well.
"Just proud of the win, resilient, take an early lead against a really good team, it's hard to hold on to it. It came down to the last rock and fortunately, we had hammer."
Despite the uncertainty entering the event, Dunstone completed an undefeated 7-0 run through the tournament, including wins over Team Danny Casper of the United States in the quarterfinals and world No. 1 Team Yannick Schwaller in the semifinals.
"Obviously we're a pretty confident group," Dunstone said. "I think all of us kind of took our own turns being the star of the show this week. I think every guy picked each other up when one guy was maybe struggling a little bit.
"Like I said, I thought individually each person just stole a game for us throughout the entire week. Obviously, we put together good games as a whole, but I just thought we had moments where guys really shined all week."
Mouat, who also entered the final with an unblemished record, secured the hammer to start; however, Dunstone jumped out to an early 3-0 lead thanks to back-to-back steals.
Facing two in the first, Mouat attempted a soft raise for a single that slid too far. Dunstone swiped another point in the second, as Mouat followed through the port but couldn't outcount Dunstone's other rock.
After Mouat drew to the button for a single in the third, Dunstone pulled off an incredible double for a critical count of three points in the fourth and a 6-1 advantage at the break.
Mouat regrouped with a run double for a deuce in the fifth, forced Dunstone to draw for one in the sixth, and hit for two more points in the seventh.
Still, that gave Dunstone a two-point lead with the hammer coming home, and he just had to make sure he didn't give up more than one on his final hit.
"A lot of it is scoreboard management, right? When you have a five-point lead at the break, you're just looking at the numbers," Dunstone said. "It's like never giving up more than a deuce, always scoring with hammer, we're going to be in a good spot.
"I mean, we could have gone at it, but it's just not worth taking any risks. You take unnecessary risks against one of the best teams in the world, you're going to pay for it, so we just played the scoreboard down the stretch. We're in the exact position we'd hoped to be in with a 6-1 lead at the break."
Dunstone collected $42,000 from the prize purse, while the Stirling-based squad of Mouat, third Robin Brydone, second Bobby Lammie and lead Hammy McMillan earned $34,000.
After winning the Masters last season, Dunstone then finished runner-up to Mouat in back-to-back Grand Slams at the Tour Challenge and GSOC Tahoe.
"Obviously, the more we do this, the better. This is kind of the bar we set for ourselves every week, knowing full well that it's not going to happen, but these games are kind of what this team's been built for," Dunstone said.
"Just nice to come out and execute and perform in one. I mean, Bruce got us twice last year, so to nip that in the bud and get the win on him this time, it definitely means that much more for sure."
Elsewhere, Japan's Team Kaito Fujii defeated Canada's Owen Jaeger 8-4 to win the Jr. GSOC Under-21 men's title.
