STATELINE, Nev. — The third time indeed was the charm for Matt Dunstone.
After dropping his first two head-to-head games against Jordon McDonald, Dunstone found the answer Friday night during the final draw of the preliminary round at the KIOTI GSOC Tahoe.
Dunstone defeated McDonald 7-4 in a battle between Winnipeg-based clubs and kept his unblemished record intact at 4-0 heading into the playoffs. That's also something different for Dunstone.
“Yeah, finally,” Dunstone said. “Three-and-oh in the last two Slams and found a way to drop our fourth, so it feels nice to be all the way through. … Again, just giving ourselves another opportunity to make a deep run here. It's been a really good week so far.”
No sooner has Dunstone, 30, found himself hanging at the top of the curling landscape than along comes the 22-year-old McDonald.
They first faced off last season during the opening round of the PointsBet Invitational. The single-elimination tournament was a one-and-done affair for Dunstone, who fell 8-5 in a bracket-busting upset to McDonald, who was fresh out of the junior ranks. They met again in this season’s PointsBet Invitational, with a format change to pool play. McDonald stymied Dunstone again, 10-5.
“I've told a couple of people now, it reminds me a lot of myself a little bit when I was Jordon's age playing Mike (McEwen) and playing Reid (Carruthers),” Dunstone said. “He's doing the same thing to me now, so it's kind of come full circle, right? He's a phenomenal player, good head on his shoulders, very knowledgeable, very smart skip as well.
“Just a very impressive team. (Third) Jacques (Gauthier) made that team a lot better, I think, and just a really solid group. It's exciting for Canadian curling to have another team like that that's up and coming. Hopefully, they can ease on the gas a little bit when it comes to kicking my butt, but nice to finally get the first one against him.”
After Dunstone was forced to a single in the first, McDonald made a spectacular raise double takeout to score a deuce and take a 2-1 lead.
Dunstone responded right back with a solid third end to count three points and never relinquished the lead again. McDonald was limited to singles in four and six, while Dunstone added a deuce in five and an insurance-marker single in seven.
“These guys have had our number, so tonight was a big night for us,” Dunstone said. “To get our first win against these guys, set the tone a little bit for the (Olympic) trials. There was a little extra motivation for us tonight, just given what they had done to us in the past and what's on the horizon, knowing that we're going to have to see them again in a couple of weeks.”
Even with those Canadian Olympic curling trials looming, Dunstone isn’t putting too much pressure on himself this week and is enjoying his time in Lake Tahoe.
“You want to have energy for the trials,” Dunstone said. “I would hate to put way too much into this week where we live and die with every shot and it begins to wreck confidence and seeds of doubt creep in. That's the last thing we want from this week.
“Honestly, I think we've taken a looser approach as well as being in a brand new place that we haven't been before, a beautiful place obviously, checking out new spots, everything. This has probably been kind of the most fun, if you want to call it, we've had during a Slam.”
Dunstone is looking to reach a third consecutive Grand Slam men’s final to start the season after winning the AMJ Masters in London, Ont., and finishing runner-up to Team Bruce Mouat at the CO-OP Tour Challenge in Nisku, Alta.
MOUAT MAINTAINS MOMENTUM
The red-hot run continues for Mouat, who will also carry an unblemished 4-0 record into the playoffs after sacking Team Jared Allen 8-2 in Draw 16.
Allen, who was recently inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, threw lead stones on his squad with all-time great Wayne Middaugh handling the skip reins.
Mouat captured a record four Grand Slam titles last season. Along the way, he surpassed Middaugh for fourth place on the list for most Grand Slam titles won as a skip.
“It's pretty cool,” Mouat said. “He's obviously one of the best curlers that we've ever had in the sport, so that was my first time getting to play him. It was a bit of a bucket list thing, like obviously getting to play some of the big names, so he was definitely one of them growing up, and I managed to tick that one off.
“It's nice that him and the guys were able to play this week. It's been a really good event for them and for us so far. I’m really excited to continue.”
Mouat, who earned his 11th Grand Slam title at the CO-OP Tour Challenge, holds the No. 1 seed in the KIOTI GSOC Tahoe quarterfinals and awaits the winner of a tiebreaker between Team Mike McEwen and Team Joël Retornaz.
“It's been really good,” Mouat said. “We've played really well. The boys and I obviously won the last one, so we wanted to continue that in such an important season. We're in a good spot and we're enjoying our curling.”
GOING BACK TO HALI
The upcoming Canadian Olympic curling trials at Halifax’s Scotiabank Centre will be a bit of a full-circle moment for Ben Hebert.
Long before he was regarded as one of the greatest leads of all time, Hebert tagged along as the alternate on John Morris’s team when the same venue hosted the trials 20 years ago.
A lot has happened in Hebert’s career in the two decades since, as he’s represented Canada twice at the Winter Olympics, winning gold in 2010, and has also captured two world championships, five Brier titles and 14 Grand Slam of Curling titles.
Reflecting on the 2005 trials, Hebert recalled it was a “different experience.”
“I was kind of their buddy that they wanted to come have beers with in the patch — and I did a great job of that, by the way, I was very good at that back in the day,” Hebert said with a chuckle.
“This will be super cool heading back to Halifax. Great curling community. We’ve played in Halifax a few times and always have great crowds and love the people out there on the East Coast. It should be a heck of a battle. We’re going there to curl, we don’t get to explore all the fun stuff, but definitely going to be diving into some lobster at some point. It’s going to be great.”
Marc Kennedy was also part of that young Team Morris squad that finished a surprising third at the 2005 Olympic trials. Kennedy and Hebert’s careers on the ice have intertwined since then, playing side-by-side with skips Kevin Martin, Kevin Koe and now Brad Jacobs.
“It’s been a long time,” Hebert said. “We started curling together when I was 22 and he was 23. There was a four-year break there when he was curling with Brad and I was curling with Koe, but he’s one of my best friends. Obviously, all of my lifelong memories in curling are going to be with Marc.”
Kennedy discussed his curling future with Devin Heroux on Thursday night and hinted that his future could depend on Hebert’s plans.
“He kind of threw me under the bus last night, that dirty dog, I’m just joking,” Hebert said with a smile. “We’ll see how this year plays out. I don’t know exactly what my future’s going to be. I’ve got kids at home, same as Marc, and I want to be around to coach them in their sports.
“I’ve been super fortunate to do everything I’ve ever considered dreaming of in curling. My goal as a kid growing up was to represent Saskatchewan at one Brier, so we’ve surpassed it. I’m just focused on the trials, see how it goes at the trials, see what happens at this year’s Brier and we’ll go from there. I’m not going to let my secrets out.”
WHYTE SPINS BACK INTO PLAYOFFS
Niklas Edin remains the king of the spinner shot, although Ross Whyte gets an A for effort.
Whyte attempted the trick shot during the fourth end of his Draw 15 match against Xu Xiaoming, needing to curl around to the button to dislodge the Chinese team’s frozen shot rock.
It was enough for Whyte to earn style points, but not enough to earn actual points, as he conceded the steal that tied the game 3-3.
“We weren't even convinced the spinner was there for anything, but as long as I didn't take my own stone out, it was worth a wee shot,” Whyte said. “It was actually a lot closer than I thought I might have gotten. Pretty pleased with the effort, but I don't think it was ever there.”
Xu forced Whyte to a single in the fifth and scored a deuce in the sixth to take a one-point lead. The Scottish squad charged back with authority to count five in the seventh and ice the game 9-5.
Whyte (3-1) bounced back to qualify for the playoffs after missing the cut at the CO-OP Tour Challenge.
“We're very pleased,” said Whyte, who finished runner-up to Dunstone at the AMJ Masters. "It was a bit of a slow start to the week, and then it started to build. We played a really good game last night against Team Jacobs, but they weren't missing, unfortunately. That was a tough one to take, but we came back out here and put in a good performance against the Chinese team and thankfully won.”
The team has Duncan McFadzean on the bench this week, as he continues to recover from off-season knee surgery. While alternate Craig Waddell remains in the lineup at second, Whyte said it’s great to have McFadzean around this week.
“He's been doing really well in his recovery,” Whyte said. “It's been tough for him sitting at home watching us go out and travel, so it's great to have him out here, and he's bringing stuff to the team. He's really helping us, kind of mapping out the ice and showing us after the game what he's seeing, what he's hearing, which is nice to feel like he's feeling a part of it. He's given us a lot of good information as well.”
MCEWEN IN THE MIX AGAIN
Mike McEwen and his Saskatoon-based squad will play at least another day.
The seven-time Grand Slam champ McEwen scored five points in the seventh end to blitz Sweden's Team Niklas Edin 11-5 in Draw 13 and earn his second win in a row to finish preliminary play level at 2-2.
"The biggest thing with that game was seven ends of just solid curling from the guys," McEwen said before learning his team's fate following the conclusion of the preliminary stage. "That’s really nice to see heading into probably a tiebreaker situation, you never know, but just to play a complete game from start to finish.
"Even the three on there, we were kind of a little bit unfortunate. There were a lot of good throws that end, so it was nice to play a complete game that was just solid from lead to skip."
McEwen will have to take a detour through a tiebreaker once again, taking on Retornaz. The alternate route hasn't worked out for for him so far this season, with losses to Team Brad Jacobs at the AMJ Masters and Team Brad Gushue at the CO-OP Tour Challenge in tiebreakers.
An exceptional last stone draw shootout tally, second best among all men's teams in the tournament, guaranteed him a spot and eliminated Edin, who also finished at 2-2.
"It’s massive," McEwen said. "We don’t have any extra-end losses to get us in straight, so the (LSD) shootout is very important for us. I guess we’re just a sucker for punishment for early morning tiebreaker games."
Friday marked 15 years since McEwen captured his first Grand Slam title at the Masters, then called the World Cup of Curling. McEwen defeated Jeff Stoughton, who now works as a coach with Curling Canada and just so happened to be on McEwen's bench.
"Oh, that’s a long time ago," McEwen said. "Just a ton of excitement. We went on to win two that season. We always dreamed of winning a Grand Slam, and I think we kind of exceeded our own expectations to win two.
"That was 2010. I just remember that was the pinnacle of top curling on tour. We hadn’t been to a Brier yet, to a national championship, so we celebrated pretty hard, especially younger days, we would have really celebrated and just relished it. That first one was special."
While teammates Kevin and Dan Marsh have won a Tier 2 title and Colton Flasch has captured the season championship, all three are still seeking their first major event title in the series.
"We’ve been close to appearing in some finals, not this season, but if we rewind the last couple seasons, we’ve had really good battles in some semifinals. Not quite made it to a final appearance," McEwen said. "For myself, I haven’t been in a final since '18-19. It’s been a while. I would really like to get to another one, and obviously, to do it and get the guys their very first would be amazing.
"Still trying to grind away. It’s been a while, but I would love to get one more, especially after a long break."
