Brad Gushue really couldn’t have asked for more from his opening two days at the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials, presented by Connect Hearing.
Gushue’s St. John’s, N.L., team — third Mark Nichols, second/vice-skip Brendan Bottcher, lead Geoff Walker, alternate Adam Casey and coach Jeff Hoffart round out the lineup — completed a perfect two-win opening weekend at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax with a 5-3 win over Calgary’s Team Kevin Koe (1-1).
With his retirement from competitive curling looming, Gushue’s return to the building in which he won this event in 2005 has clearly lit an early fire under the 45-year-old two-time Olympian (gold in 2006, bronze in 2022).
“So far it’s been really good,” said Gushue. “I think for me, the intensity and that kind of drive is back that I’ve been lacking for a while. When I have that, I’m able to stay in a zone and not worry about too much what’s going on outside of that. So I like where I’m at and I think that’s actually helping my teammates, too. I think it all kind of stems from that intensity and that motivation, and obviously it’s a big week. If you’re not motivated at the Olympic trials, you’re never going to be motivated.”
It didn’t come easily on Sunday afternoon in a showdown of two of the most accomplished skips in curling history. Both skips were in vintage form, with Koe in particular making an array of highlight-reel shots — a perfect hit-and-roll to sit buried and force Gushue to a tricky tap for a single in the first; a cross-house double in the third end; and a runback double takeout in the fourth end.
But it was a miss in the eighth end with the teams tied 2-2, being just a hair light on a tapback attempt and not pushing a Team Gushue stone back far enough that opened the door for the victory. Gushue made the open hit for the game’s first, and eventually decisive, deuce.
Koe made another stunner in the ninth, an angle-raise to move a Team Gushue stone off the button, but in the 10th, the Albertans couldn’t generate a steal and Gushue was left with an open draw to nail down the win.
“That was a 2016-2017 (era) Gushue vs. Koe matchup,” said Gushue with a smile. “It was fun to be part of, but man oh man, it was frustrating because I felt like we were applying pressure and Kevin was just making pistol after pistol and he played so well. Even some of the shots that he didn’t make perfect, I didn’t even know he could make them that good.
“So it was a remarkable game, it was a lot of fun to be part of and I’m glad we came out on top.”
Gushue finished the game scored at a team-high 99 per cent (“I think we had a hard marker,” he chuckled. “I’m not sure where I lost the one per cent, to be quite honest.”), just a hair better than Koe’s 94 per cent.
More important than those numbers, of course, is the 2-0 record — early times, but with 25 per cent of the round-robin schedule complete, the path to a playoff spot is a little more clear.
“More importantly than that, I like how we’re playing,” said Gushue. “ I like how we’re communicating, our draw weight’s good, Mark’s throwing it as good as I’ve seen him throw it all year, Brendan’s throwing it great, so we’re in a good position.
“I could not ask for anything more after two games, but I also don’t want to get too excited because it is just two games and we’ve got a lot of really, really good teams left. If we play like we played today, we’re going to be tough to beat, so copy and paste, I guess.”
In the other games, Team Matt Dunstone of Winnipeg also remained unbeaten with an 8-4 victory over Team Jordon McDonald (0-2; Winnipeg); Team Brad Jacobs of Calgary (1-1) hit the win column, eking out a 6-4 extra-end win over Team Rylan Kleiter (0-2; Saskatoon); and Team John Epping (1-1; Sudbury, Ont.) scored four in the ninth end to beat Team Mike McEwen (1-1; Saskatoon) 9-5.
The 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials continue Sunday with a women’s draw at 7 p.m. (all times Atlantic).
Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials are available by CLICKING HERE.
TSN and RDS will provide coverage of the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.
For ticket information for the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials, go to www.curling.ca/2025trials/tickets.
This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/fr/2025trials/nouvelles.
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