Dunstone Wins Brier, Warms an Old Curling Heart

ST.JOHN’S – The 2026 Montana’s Brier final managed to warm the old heart of this curling guy.

An undefeated legend from Alberta, skipping an interesting team of veterans and youth, up against the emotional kid who has won far too much silver in recent years.

How could any pure curling fan, irrespective of provincial or territorial bias, not smile as Matt Dunstone fell to his knees, watched his final throw at the Mary Brown’s Centre head to glory and mouthed “I can’t believe it” before the sellout crowd exploded?

Add in the other images from the past, of crushing Brier semifinal and final losses (last year and 2023) – plus not one but two championship defeats at the Canadian Olympic Trials – and the story arc is one that any sports fan can appreciate.

Dunstone is now 30, and that makes him the youngest Brier-winning skip of the last 20 years.

The win also confirmed Colton Lott as a deserving champion third. Lott, a fellow best-known for a while for mixed doubles prowess, moved up from second after B.J. Neufeld was dropped from the team. 

Two years, two Brier finals and one title – that’s sweet stuff.

And how about the redemption of E.J. Harnden? He got the biggest pre-game crowd cheers, thanks to two Brier titles with favourite St. John’s son Brad Gushue.

Now he gets the last laugh, and one last trip to the worlds before retirement, just 15 months after Gushue dumped him.

Kevin Koe only lost one game last week, and it was the final. He only dropped one three-ender all week, and it came in the final.

There’s not much that needs to be said. He’s a true legend, fairly quiet and unassuming and just plain deadly with a 42-pound granite stone.

Third Tyler Tardi almost got was he was looking for. Dubbed “the future of Canadian curling” by his Olympic teammates, Tardi helped Koe defeat the third-place Team Jacobs and can stand on his own moving forward.

Karrick Martin, son of Kevin, has now lost four Brier finals, one less than his skipper Koe (nine finals! NINE!) to go with his 2021 victory.

Six of the eight guys who competed in the Brier final are Curling Cares alumni, calendar models who donated valuable time and effort to help raise almost a million dollars for some 80 charities over the past 20 years. 

(The Scotties women’s final from five weeks ago was a clean sweep; all eight competitors are Curling Cares alumni.)

Dunstone appeared on the 2021 Curling Cares cover, along with his gal Erin Pincott, the third for Team Brown (who recently announced their breakup). Dunstone and Pincott were easy to work with – of course – and their selected charity was the Alzheimer Society of B.C.

I was a bit shocked to note this is Manitoba’s first Brier title since Jeff Stoughton won his third trophy in 2011.

Alberta leads Manitoba in Brier titles by 30 to 28. Ontario is third with 10.

I also see Dunstone’s Brier championship tale following that of Koe, somewhat. 

A young Koe lost the 2007 Alberta final to Kevin Martin in devastating fashion, then took his chance while K-Mart was at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics to win his province, the Brier… and a world title. 

Of course, there was no Team Canada in men’s Brier play back then.

The final score here in St. John’s was 6-3.

“It’s been a lot of heartbreak, you know, over this quadrennial, losing two of these, and then the Trials,” Dunstone told the media scrummers.

“It’s a very special moment for this group. We’ve put a lot of work into what we do, obviously. 

“This moment feels way more incredible than I ever would have imagined that it would.”

Um, yeah. Just look at the photos, people!

Dunstone gets to wear the maple leaf at the world championship in Ogden, Utah after winning bronze at two world junior championships. 

That was many vertical leaps ago.

“(It’s been) far too long – 10 years, man,” said Dunstone, shaking his head. “And I feel very honoured, very blessed to be able to go and represent Canada on the world stage, especially after seeing Team Jacobs go and do what they did. It was very inspirational. 

“I feel very fortunate and just can’t wait to do the same.”

It’s been 13 years since Ryan Harnden won a Brier title, with his brother and also his cousin, Brad Jacobs. 

Lott, who was with Dunstone in his junior days, notched his first Brier win.

Last word to Dunstone:

“We’ve had a lot of sad beers after after events and and tonight we get to have happy ones. I just cannot wait.”

For more 2026 Brier anecdotes, be sure to check out Mike Fournier’s column filed during the Sunday semifinal. The man has a way with words.

I’m out. These amazing Anil Mungal jubilation photos are getting to me – again. 

Oh, my old curling heart.