It was fitting that it wound up coming down to the top two men’s teams in the country.
The final of the 2025 Montana’s Brier saw a significant local flavour as well on Sunday night in Kelowna, B.C.
In the end, it was Brad Jacobs and his Alberta-based rink who topped Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone by a 5-3 score to earn the chance to represent Canada at the World Men’s Curling Championship later this month in Moose Jaw, Sask.
The Dunstone rink also features tie to the Sault in second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden, and coach Caleb Flaxey.
An emotional Jacobs told TSN following the win that it was “a dream come true all over again.”
“This means everything to us, trying to win this Brier,” Jacobs added, referencing his teammates in third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant, and lead Ben Hebert. “We formed the team to do exactly what we did here today.”
“I can’t put it into words, this feeling,” Jacobs also said when asked what it meant to win the tournament with his new team.
In a media scrum shared by Curling Canada, Jacobs spoke of having to run the table in the playoff round, which included having to win four elimination games to capture the title.
“That was a long road,” Jacobs said. “That was a tough grind. I’m so proud of the guys for playing the way they did, hanging in there, and grinding all week.”
Jacobs added that winning the four straight elimination games “goes to show the character of this team.”
“We have a never quit attitude,” Jacobs said. “We know that we’re going to fight all the way to the end, no matter what. Everybody’s just been so positive, even throughout this long journey top get to the final.”
Following the loss, Dunstone said he was “completely heartbroken for my team.”
“I wasn’t good enough for them down the stretch,” Dunstone added.
In Sunday’s title game, Dunstone opened things up with blanks in the opening four ends before making a draw for two to open the scoring in the fifth end.
Jacobs got on the board in the sixth end with a draw for one before tying the game with a steal of one more in the seventh end.
Dunstone said momentum swung after the steal by Jacobs in the seventh end.
“Down the stretch, they just placed rocks better than us,” Dunstone added.
After Dunstone scored a single in the ninth end to take a 3-2 lead, Jacobs tacked on three in the 10th end to capture the title.
Jacobs got into Sunday’s final thanks to a semifinal win over Brad Gushue’s Team Canada rink Sunday afternoon.
Jacobs beat Gushue 7-5 to move on, picking up a steal of one in the 10th end after Gushue was heavy on a tapback attempt with the hammer.
Jacobs called the final shot “the biggest break of the year.”
“That was a heavyweight bout. I said to the guys multiple times throughout that game, there’s just no place we’d rather be and we were having a lot of fun. Anytime you can be in a big game like that, in front of that many people and so many shots made, it’s just a lot of fun. It makes it so rewarding as an athlete to be part of something like that,” Jacobs said in a Curling Canada story. “Really proud of the guys for how they played and how they grinded; we grinded all game, both teams did. And we were able to just stick with it right until the end and then, what can I say, we got the biggest break of the year.”
Gushue told reporters that he felt for his teammates after being heavy on his final shot.
“I thought, you know, obviously when you have a shot to win the game and you don’t do it, you feel bad for your teammates because they put me in a position for us to win that game and just overthrew that last rock, threw it six feet harder than what I needed to throw it,” Gushue said.
After giving up a steal in the opening end, a hit for three gave Jacobs the lead. On a draw for two in the sixth end, Gushue was heavy and could only score one to make it a 3-2 game.
Jacobs took a 4-2 lead with a single in the seventh before Gushue grabbed a 5-4 lead with three in the eighth.
Jacobs made a hit for two in the ninth end to set the stage for the final end dramatics.
After going 8-0 in round robin play, Jacobs fell to Gushue by a 7-4 margin on Friday night in page playoff qualifier play before beating Nova Scotia’s Owen Purcell to get into Saturday’s 3V4 Page Playoff game where he beat Reid Carruthers to advance to the semifinal earlier today.
Dunstone went 7-1 in round robin play and finished first in Pool A before beating Gushue on Saturday in the 1V2 Page Playoff.
The World Men’s Curling Championship opens on March 29 in Moose Jaw and the Jacobs rink will be in action in the opening draw when they face Japan.