By Jonathan Brazeau
The Sheriff is back on duty.
A new season is underway for Matt Dunstone and his Winnipeg club after a roller-coaster ride of highs and heartbreak. From appearing in three Grand Slam of Curling finals, including a Masters title win, to finishing runner-up at the Canadian Olympic Trials; from capturing his first Brier to earning silver at the World Men's Curling Championship.
The beginning of a new Olympic quad also brought a flurry of team changes, and Dunstone was no exception. With second E.J. Harnden stepping back, Dunstone recruited Mark Nichols, who needed a new home after his longtime skip Brad Gushue also called it a career.
The retooled roster already has a tour title in the books, winning the Okotoks Classic during the final weekend of September.
We caught up with Dunstone for Eight Ends to discuss the Okotoks victory, bringing Nichols into the fold alongside third Colton Lott and lead Ryan Harnden, why he willingly moved back to Winnipeg and more.
FIRST END: Dunstone finished with a 7-1 record in the Okotoks Classic, with his lone loss coming against Team Kevin Koe, 7-4, in a Brier final rematch during the A-Event of the triple knockout preliminary round. After doubling up on Team Marco Hösli 8-4 in the B-qualifiers, Dunstone defeated Team Evan Van Amsterdam 8-3 in the quarterfinals and Team Jordon McDonald 7-3 in the semis.
That set up another meeting against Hösli in the title fight. This one went the distance, with Dunstone prevailing 5-4 in an extra end.
"I think it’s pretty awesome to get one early, especially with a new group," Dunstone said. "Obviously we’ve got three of the same four (players), but I think to get a win under our belt against a lot of good teams, and one of the top tour events, is pretty exciting for us and hopefully something that we can continue to build off of."
The victory was one day shy of the anniversary of his GSOC Masters win last season in London, Ontario, prompting Dunstone to jokingly suggest, "Maybe we’ve got to start putting the Brier over in that spot now."
"I think anytime you can win early in the season just serves the team awfully well heading into the later months of the tour season and beyond," he added. "It's a massive confidence builder, as you know, and especially having four or five months off, whatever it was, just to come back and go and win something and kind of get that reminder that you still got it kind of thing, I think it’s important and huge for a team's confidence going into a long season."
SECOND END: Dunstone led by one with the hammer in the fifth end, but he was in a force situation facing three Hösli stones on his last. Dunstone's shooter hit and rolled too far, resulting in a steal that tied the game 2-2.
Fast-forward to the extra end with Dunstone looking at another trio of Hösli granite as he prepared to throw the final shot of the game. All three were spread around the edge of the eight-foot circle, giving Dunstone enough breathing room to deliver the draw.
"Not a shot we had thrown a ton throughout that game, but we had a pretty good handle on draw weight all week," Dunstone said. "I think that's a trend with this team that we've seen over two events now is we draw really well, and that was the shot we were looking for.
"It was a game we controlled the pace of. Phillipp (Hösli, Marco's brother) made a great shot to go to an extra end, and then angles didn't quite work out for them on Phillipp's first one, and we were able to blast everything up and give us a large chunk of the paint to ultimately win. That's one that you'd like to think that you're going to make a lot more times than you're going to miss."
THIRD END: The Okotoks Classic is part of the new Satellite Events series and served as a qualifier for the GSOC Masters, Nov. 3-8, in Medicine Hat, Alberta.
The season's second GSOC event features 16 teams in the men’s and women’s divisions: the top 12 teams from the world rankings as of Sept. 29, two sponsors' exemptions and two Satellite qualifiers. If the winning Satellite team is already in the top 12, the Grand Slam of Curling will reallocate the qualifier berth to the highest-finishing eligible team from the event outside the top 12.
Dunstone's ticket to the GSOC Masters was never in doubt, given that his team entered the week at No. 5 in the world rankings and wasn't in danger of dropping out of the top 12. However, there was something at stake for Dunstone. Teams that qualify for the playoffs in Satellite Events also earn points toward entry for the GSOC Players' Cup, the season's fifth and final Grand Slam, running Dec. 15-20 in Kingston, Ontario.
"The Players' is obviously an event that's awfully important for us to be in, so that's huge for us in that sense," Dunstone said. "To the other side of it too, the more that we can see these teams have the opportunity to participate in the Slam, I think that's what a lot of those teams who've kind of been on the bubbles of Slams have been looking for a little while now."
FOURTH END: The Okotoks Classic was Team Dunstone's second event of the season, after kicking things off at the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard in mid-September.
That event didn't go as planned. Dunstone came up one win shy of the playoffs, losing to Team John Shuster in the C-qualifiers to miss the cut.
Recent experience helped Dunstone put Oakville in the rearview mirror and look ahead to Okotoks.
"The biggest positive was it was the first event of the season, so we had a lot of events left for sure," Dunstone said. "Again, you look at our last year too, we DNQed the Shorty (Jenkins Classic), the very first event that we played, and then we went every single final under the sun after that. Our team took a lot of confidence in that. I mean, you don't like to waste events or burn events, but just past history would show you that maybe we get off to a little bit of a slow start, and that was just what that was.
"There were a lot of moving parts: brand new team, new positions. There was a feeling-out process. I'll be the first one to say that Mark's been the perfect fit for this team, which has us all really, really excited, and it just didn't come to fruition. Oakville was a really hard event, too. There were a lot of great teams who had played a lot of games, had a lot of events under their belts already at that point, and they were just sharper than us.
"Just the little details of games and making key shots when it mattered, it wasn't happening, but just with past history and what our team had done in the past, we took a lot of confidence going into Okotoks that we were due to get back to the form that we're all used to playing at."
FIFTH END: Nichols won it all with Gushue: Olympic gold, a world championship, six Brier titles and 15 Grand Slams. [Sidebar: Nichols also claimed a Grand Slam title during his short tenure with Jeff Stoughton, thus ensuring he'd always be one spot ahead of his good pal Gushue on the all-time list.]
Gushue's announcement came before last season started, giving his teammates Nichols, Brendan Bottcher and Geoff Walker plenty of time to weigh their options.
Although E.J. Harnden made his decision over the Christmas break, Dunstone wished to take his time before recruiting his replacement.
"We obviously hadn't won a Brier yet, this group of people, and I think that was something that was really important to this group, so I wanted to take a bit more of a patient play with that and kind of not deal with that until post-Brier and obviously knowing who was available," he said. "I think we were in a good spot as well where we were known. I think there was a pretty clear top two between us and (Brad) Jacobs for Canadian men's teams at the end of the last cycle, and it kind of felt like we had some options, right? So we could take a little bit more of a patient approach."
It wasn't until after winning the Brier when Dunstone made the short sales pitch to Nichols.
"It wasn't a whole lot of conversation, or it wasn't a very extended conversation. It felt like a pretty good fit right away," he explained. "It was just a matter of Mark figuring it out with his family — if continuing to go was something that they were looking to do. Had an original conversation with him, and then a couple of days later, (he) gave me a shout back and said he was in. Just like that, we were back in action."
SIXTH END: When Dunstone added E.J. Harnden two years ago to replace B.J. Neufeld, the chemistry was instant. The move not only reunited the Brush Bros., but Lott also moved up to third, reestablishing a back-end combo with Dunstone that won two Canadian junior titles and two bronze medals at the world juniors.
If the onboarding process with Nichols took a bit longer, it would be understandable. That hasn't been the case, though. Dunstone said Nichols has been amazing as the 46-year-old from St. John's, N.L., has adapted from throwing third to second.
"It's just no surprise the sustained success that he's had for a very long time with Brad's team," Dunstone said. "To see that in real time and how he goes about his business and carries himself, the work ethic and the professionalism that he provides and brings to the team, it's been a lot of fun just to learn and talk with him and learn how he does things and what has worked for him in the past. Just to be able to have those conversations feels pretty fortunate. I'd like to hope on the flip side that he's been able to enjoy his next chapter of curling with us — it's certainly on my end. It's as good a fit as I really could have hoped for, and I know our team feels that way. I couldn't be more excited.
"Obviously, a new position for him, kind of sort of, I mean. The sweeping piece he'd been doing for Brad, like with Brendan in the house the last couple of years, but other than that, business as usual. Everyone knows his shooting ability, too. To have that at that position and to tag that along with Colt at third most weekends is going to make my life awfully easy."
SEVENTH END: That's it, back to Winnipeg! A lineup change wasn't the only move for Dunstone this off-season; he also literally moved provinces, returning home to Manitoba after living in B.C. with his partner, Erin Pincott.
It's a double win for the couple in Winnipeg. Dunstone can now train with Lott more consistently, while Pincott has joined Selena Njegovan's new women's team based in Winnipeg.
"We get to be fully invested in curling in the same city now. She had her team in Kamloops previously, and I was a bit of a lone wolf, but now we get to do this together in the same spot. It just made sense to relocate," Dunstone said.
"I'm already seeing the dividends being paid out via the easier travel schedule. My goodness, to have direct flights everywhere, and no connections and uncomfortable planes. That's been my favorite part up to this point, but we're getting into a nice routine here in Winnipeg. Ask me in a couple of months when it's minus-50, but as of right now, it's been as good of a fit, I think, for both of us as we could have asked for."
EIGHTH END: Dunstone will make a return trip to B.C. for the GSOC Co-op Invitational. The season's first Grand Slam event begins Tuesday at Victoria's Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.
Dunstone is looking forward to getting out and exploring beautiful Victoria as well as taking care of business on the ice, with friends and fans expected to be in attendance.
"Kind of their chance to see me, given it's probably our only event in B.C. this year, so super excited," he said. "I’m just excited to play the best in the business. That's what we signed up to do. That's what we work for, and that's what we're going to get in a week's time, so it's awesome to be back."
