Manitoba-Dunstone skip Matt Dunstone, right, and lead Ryan Harnden celebrate after defeating Brad Gushue's Canada rink during the Brier, in Kelowna, B.C., on Thursday, March 6, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

KELOWNA, B.C. - An off-day for Reid Carruthers at the Montana's Brier became much busier on Thursday night.

The Manitoba skip picked up the last playoff spot in Pool A when Manitoba's Matt Dunstone edged Canada's Brad Gushue 7-6 to earn the top seed in the nine-team group.

Gushue took the second seed and Carruthers earned the third spot thanks to a tiebreaker advantage over Northern Ontario's John Epping. Carruthers watched the game in his coach's room at the team hotel near Prospera Place.

"We're just driving to top up on some groceries," he said when reached shortly after the draw. "Because we're staying longer now."

The three teams will play in the qualification round Friday. The Page playoffs are on tap Saturday and the final is set for Sunday night.

The Pool B playoff picture was finalized after the evening draw.

Alberta's Brad Jacobs (8-0) took the top seed after scoring three points in an extra end for a 9-6 win over Saskatchewan's Mike McEwen (7-1).

Nova Scotia's Owen Purcell (5-3) picked up the third seed with a 7-3 win over Ontario's Sam Mooibroek (4-4).

Dunstone gave up three points in the third end when he missed an angle-raise attempt. Gushue stole a point in the fourth for a 4-1 lead but Dunstone later pulled even with a runback double for a deuce in the seventh.

Down 6-5 but in control with hammer, Gushue made an uncharacteristic error in the ninth end when his stone stayed in the rings on a blank attempt. That gave Dunstone hammer with the game tied and he scored a single when Gushue's draw was light.

"It was all about being the best team over the course of 10 ends," Dunstone said. "That was our mindset going into today and I thought we did that. That's why you saw the result that you did."

The win gave Dunstone (7-1) hammer in the 1-2 qualifier Friday against McEwen. Gushue (7-1) will face Jacobs in the other 1-2 qualifier.

"We're still in it and we're still playing really good," said Gushue, who's aiming for a record fourth straight Brier title. "We just had a bad five ends really. That was our first bad stretch this week."

The 1-2 game winners advance to the Page Playoff 1-2 game on Saturday. The losing teams will fall into the Page Playoff 3-4 game against the winners of Friday's 3-4 qualifier games.

The Page Playoff 3-4 winner advances to Sunday's semifinal against the Page Playoff 1-2 loser. The Page Playoff 1-2 winner gets a direct berth into the final.

Carruthers and Epping finished with 6-2 records but the Winnipeg skip moved on because he won their lone head-to-head meeting.

Carruthers, who won the Brier in 2011 with Jeff Stoughton, said a nervy two-plus hours of screen time with teammates was capped with an in-room celebration.

"It was loud," he said with a chuckle. "I was worried about a noise complaint."

Epping did all he could by posting a 13-3 win over Nunavut's Shane Latimer. The teams shook hands early and the Northern Ontario players watched the end of the Gushue-Dunstone game with family members in an arena suite.

Needing a Gushue win to advance, they were optimistic when the St. John's skip had control after eight ends. But hopes faded when Gushue couldn't get the ninth-end blank and the wide draw in the 10th sealed it.

"We'll regroup," Epping said. "Right now it stings a bit."

In morning play, Mooibroek defeated Prince Edward Island's Tyler Smith 8-4 while Purcell topped Aaron Bartling of the Northwest Territories 7-4. Jacobs beat Quebec's Jean-Michel Menard 6-4 and Yukon's Thomas Scoffin upset Saskatchewan's Rylan Kleiter 8-6.

In the afternoon, New Brunswick's James Grattan beat British Columbia's Cameron de Jong 7-5 and Alberta's Kevin Koe defeated Ty Dilello of Newfoundland and Labrador 5-1.

Koe, a four-time national champion, missed the playoffs for a second straight year at 4-4. Grattan was next at 3-5 ahead of de Jong (2-6), Dilello (1-7) and Latimer (0-8).

In the other late games, Menard beat Kleiter 8-5 and Scoffin defeated Bartling 6-2. Menard and Scoffin were tied with Mooibroek for fourth place at 4-4 ahead of Kleiter (3-5), Smith (1-7) and Bartling (0-8).

The Brier winner will represent Canada at the BKT world men's curling championship starting March 29 in Moose Jaw, Sask.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2025.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2025