Eight Ends: Team Dunstone holding steady through turbulent Canadian men’s scene
Amid all the lineup changes that have taken place among the top Canadian men’s teams since the start of the Olympic cycle, there’s one that has “stood pat” through it all.
Skip Matt Dunstone has kept the same roster intact since forming his Winnipeg-based club two years ago while the likes of Brad Gushue, Brad Jacobs, Mike McEwen, Reid Carruthers and Kevin Koe have all either shuffled players or whole teams.
Dunstone said it’s hard to believe his squad — featuring third B.J. Neufeld, second Colton Lott and lead Ryan Harnden — is the last one standing, but he credits team dynamics being really good right from the start.
“Everybody’s on the same page with what’s needed to get done to get us to where we want to get to,” Dunstone said during a phone interview Monday. “It’s just a group that really gets along and enjoys growing and learning together to try and get better. It’s fun to be a part of that. We had a lot of success in year one, which I think was proof to this group that we have what it takes to get to where we want to get to. We’re just continuing to build off of that success we had in year one.”
Although it’s not unusual to see teams make changes during the off-season — such as Jacobs joining Brendan Bottcher’s former teammates and Carruthers adding third Catlin Schneider to replace Jacobs — a few early in-season moves over the past few weeks created shockwaves. Koe dropped second Jacques Gauthier and added former skip Aaron Sluchinski while Gushue parted ways with second E.J. Harnden and brought in Bottcher.
Both teams have yet to debut their new-look lineups. Team Koe continued to play short-handed this past weekend at the Henderson Metal Fall Classic in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and Adam Casey subbed at lead on Team Gushue with Geoff Walker moving up to second.
The Olympic Trials are 13 months away and representing Canada at the 2026 Winter Games remains the No. 1 goal.
“The nicest way I can put it right now is it’s total madness, everything that’s going on right now,” Dunstone said. “You see it in the off-season but to see this end of September and early October is unforeseen, generally. The amount of times it’s happening it’s hard to believe but everybody is just trying to do what they feel they need to do to be ready for the Olympic Trials. The atmosphere itself, I wouldn’t call it tense, but looking at all of the other teams giving each other the eye just kinda like, ‘what the heck is going on here,’ is how I would describe that.”
Through it all, Team Dunstone emerged victorious in the Soo posting a perfect 7-0 record to successfully defend the title. Dunstone capped the event with a 7-5 victory over Switzerland’s Team Marco Hösli in Sunday’s final. It was Dunstone’s first title win since last year’s victory at the event and he said it’s also an awesome win for Harnden, who lives in Sault Ste. Marie and helps organize the tournament.
“He puts so much time and effort into this event to make it the best tour stop in the world outside of the Grand Slams obviously. He does such a great job,” Dunstone said. “It’s been a long time coming. It felt like we were due to win again and it feels great to be back on top of the podium.”
The 28-team event featured 10 of the top 16 in the world. Dunstone is right in that mix ranked No. 9 and called the title victory a “confidence builder.”
“Those are the teams that you want to play and want to beat. The ultimate goal is to be the best team in the world and that’s what you have to do,” he said. “We played a handful of them this weekend, caught some breaks and played really well. That’s the only way you can win these events with a tough, deep field. I think that the fields at this event are only going to get stronger as we go, too.”
Let’s look at some other Dunstone tidbits plus takeaways from the Henderson Metal Fall Classic in Eight Ends.
FIRST END: Although Dunstone hasn’t made any changes on the ice, he has made one addition off it. Caleb Flaxey is now a fixture on the bench alongside Adam Kingsbury as part of their coaching staff this season. Flaxey coached Jacobs and Gushue’s teams in the past and Dunstone said he’s very happy to now have him on his team.
“Caleb’s amazing. He’s certainly blown me away with the knowledge and the data that he brings to the table,” Dunstone said. “He’s already made an enormous difference on this team just from our overall operation standpoint on the ice and in practice and draw to the button. He’s brilliant and we’re very fortunate to have him come on board with us. Him and Adam are working so well together. We’re kind of referring to them as Batman and Robin right now.
“It’s so nice having two guys to help carry the load because I think it gets overlooked, whether you be a fifth or a coach, how busy it actually is going to the rink when the team’s not playing, charting rocks, getting sheets, just feeling everything out, getting ready for game time. The amount of work and effort they both put into it obviously means a lot to our team. It pays huge dividends taking that load off of us so we can go out and focus and compete. I’m very thankful we have Caleb to add to the squad.”
SECOND END: It’s only October and the team has four events in the books, but Dunstone believes he’s off to a better start this season than last year. Team Dunstone opened 2024-25 with a quarterfinal run at the Shorty Jenkins Classic in Cornwall, Ont., but was one-and-done at the single-elimination PointsBet Invitational in Calgary with a loss to Team Jordon McDonald in the opening round. Dunstone bounced back big time making a run to the semifinals in the HearingLife Tour Challenge, the first Grand Slam of Curling event of the season in Charlottetown, and broke through with a title win in Sault Ste. Marie.
Dunstone said the PointsBet loss might have been the best thing to happen to his team as they used the extra time off in Calgary to hold a four-day training camp at the Glencoe Club to regroup. That loss now looks like a blip on the radar.
“You never know what’s good for you in this sport,” Dunstone said. “I know we left that camp very confident after working through some kinks and just adding a few extra layers on. Last year we were having a hard time getting past quarterfinals and we’ve already done that twice this year. We’re in a really good spot, very confident, kind of feel like we’ve got our mojo back from year one and just hoping to build off of this one win and grab a couple more wins as we go.”
THIRD END: U.S. Thanksgiving has become the measuring point for NHL teams to gauge where they really stand. Since the curling season starts a little bit earlier, we can kind of use the period between Canadian and U.S. Thanksgiving as most teams will have played enough events to evaluate signs of success or troubling trends.
Dunstone follows up his Henderson Metal Fall Classic win with a trip to Penticton, B.C., this weekend for the Nufloors Penticton Curling Classic. The best in the world then reconnect for the Co-op Canadian Open, Nov. 5-10, in Nisku, Alta.
“We’ve got Penticton in a couple of days, which is an event we’ve made a couple deep runs in the last couple of years, haven’t been able to pull it off, so it would be nice to go out and win a second one in a row,” Dunstone said. “That’s how tough the tour is these days and how much parity there is. You can’t take any wins for granted but just try to give yourself a chance every single weekend.
“Over the next two months, I think we’ve got four events or so. It’s definitely our busiest stretch, kind of sets the tone for the rest of the year. In every event, you just want to get more and more confident, more and more comfortable, as we get into 2025 and some of the more important stuff begins.”
FOURTH END: The defeat to Dunstone in the final was Hösli’s lone loss of the week as his team also qualified A-side in the triple knockout and earned wins over Carruthers in the quarterfinals and McEwen in the semis.
Also impressive was the fact that Hösli hadn’t given up a multiple-point end until the final. Dunstone managed to crack the code as he scored a deuce in the fifth end then stole a crucial point in the seventh to hold a 5-3 lead. After Hösli took two in the eighth to extend the match, Dunstone made a short angle raise tap to tack on a pair of points in the extra end.
Hösli started the season ranked 23rd but has been on the move and is now 12th.
Meanwhile, Carruthers was the biggest mover of the week among the top teams as his Winnipeg club climbed four spots into 11th with its quarterfinal finish. The team needed a boost too after going one-and-done in the PointsBet Invitational and 0-3 through the HearingLife Tour Challenge.
FIFTH END: It’s been “wild times in Canadian men’s curling,” as Team Jacobs third Marc Kennedy told Sportsnet’s Kristina Rutherford about the off-ice changes, but it’s been wild on the pebbled sheet too.
Team Gushue and Team Korey Dropkin played a rare double extra end during their game Friday. Dropkin was looking to hit and stick for the win in the first extra, but his shooter rolled out to blank the end and onto the 10th they went. Dropkin retained the hammer, however, he jammed a runback to give up a steal as Gushue swiped the 5-4 victory. Wild times, indeed.
SIXTH END: Gushue looked to be in trouble during the event after a loss to McEwen dropped his team into the C-side of the triple knockout and on the brink of elimination. The St. John’s, N.L., crew righted the ship though and picked up wins over Japan’s Team Shinya Abe and Team Yusuke Morozumi to qualify for the playoffs.
That set up a rematch in the quarterfinals against McEwen, who prevailed again with a 5-4 win. Gushue held the hammer in the eighth end, down by two points, but couldn’t pull off the double needed to tie or outright win it as he missed the second stone and only scored a single.
That was still a better outcome than Jacobs and Koe, whose teams both missed the playoffs.
Bottcher was away at the Saville Mixed Doubles Classic in Edmonton reaching the quarterfinals with Rachel Homan.
We’ll get our first look at Bottcher with Gushue when they represent Canada at the Pan Continental Curling Championships, which begin Sunday in Lacombe, Alta.
SEVENTH END: John Epping’s new-look team had been making noise with back-to-back title wins at the KW Fall Classic and Stu Sells Toronto Tankard, but the Henderson Metal Fall Classic would serve as a much bigger test.
Consider it a passing grade and then some as Epping advanced to the playoffs, eliminating Jacobs in the C-qualifiers, before losing to Dunstone in the quarterfinals.
EIGHTH END: Hockey has the “Michigan” goal, curling has the super-spinner. Even since Swedish skip Niklas Edin pulled one off during a game against Norway at the 2023 world championship, we’ve seen it crop up from time to time as a desperation manoeuvre or for a laugh.
It’s also worked its way into mixed doubles as Laura Walker made one to score two points during the Saville Mixed Doubles Classic.
As the world’s best curlers found out, it’s a lot harder than it looks whether it be skill, fluke or a little from column A and a little from column B. Regardless, the super-spinner is fun to watch and who says no to fun?