Jacobs back as Brier champion

[With files from Curling Canada]

Brad Jacobs returned to the Brier final for the first time in 10 years and skipped the first team in Brier history to win four straight elimination games to capture the 2025 Canadian Men’s Curling Championship.

The 39-year-old Northern Ontario skip led his Alberta team of Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant, and Ben Hebert to a nailbiting 5-3 victory over Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone in the championship final.

Earlier on Sunday, Jacobs had snuck through the semifinal after watching archrival Brad—as in Gushue, the three-time defending champion and winner of six titles since 2017—miss his final stone for the win.

“Unbelievable, unbelievable,” marvelled Jacobs, who won the Brier in 2013 (with two members of Dunstone’s team, his cousins E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden) and also won Olympic gold for Canada in 2014.

“It’s relieving. It’s been too long since I’ve won this championship. I’ve only got two now, but I said earlier in the week that it would take a lot of pressure off the rest of my career. I hope that’s the case.”

For Kennedy, it was his fourth Brier win, while for Hebert and Gallant, it was their fifth apiece.

Gallant’s previous four titles came with former skip Gushue, as well as Olympic bronze at Beijing 2022.

Nothing came easily for the Calgary team at Kelowna’s Prospera Place.

After losing the Page 1 vs. 2 qualifier on Friday afternoon, the squad rattled off four wins in succession, including two dandies on Sunday—7-5 over three-time defending champs Team Canada and then against the top team in the Canadian Team Ranking System (Dunstone).

In the sixth end, Jacobs was forced to a single, and was in danger of giving up a big number an end later. Dunstone, sitting one, attempted a difficult double takeout that could have put two or three on the scoreboard. Instead, he jammed one of the Alberta stones into his own counter, resulting in a game-tying steal of one for the Albertans.

In the ninth, another crushing miss from Dunstone did the most to propel Jacobs to victory. Attempting a soft hit-and-roll to sit two with hammer, Dunstone overcurled and missed the target stone, resulting in him being forced to take one for a 3-2 lead and give the all-important hammer in the 10th to Alberta.

Jacobs made a last-rock takeout to score three coming home.

“Completely heartbroken for my team,” said Dunstone. “I wasn’t good enough for them down the stretch and yeah, I’m just heartbroken for them, but this is a really good group.

“Sometimes winning’s out of your control and what we’re going to focus on is trying to grow as a team.”

The new Team Canada will compete at the world championship Mar. 29-Apr. 6 in Moose Jaw, Sask., which is of particular meaning to Hebert, who was born and raised in Regina, just 45 minutes away.

“It’s emotional,” said Hebert, tears welling in his eyes. “I mean, I’m not getting any younger. So you never know how many of these you got left.

“I’m gonna stop crying, but I’m stoked. I’m so stoked. And to do with these guys, it means a lot.”

Jacobs had labelled his win over Gushue the “biggest break of the year.”

That was a heavy Gushue tap/hit attempt. Canada had an opportunity to score a deuce to win the game but a combination of adrenaline and lack of time and the shot clock led to Gushue giving it a little extra, and not getting the connection required to head to a fourth-straight Montana’s Brier final.

His teammates tried to make the stone curl with brushing, but their rock just ticked the intended target granite.

Thanks to a gentlemen’s agreement set before the Brier to avoid using the more impactful “black foam”… we’ll never know what might have happened.

“Yeah, just a lot of disappointment, a lot of heartbreak for my teammates,” said Gushue.

“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(I) just overthrew that last rock, threw it six feet harder than what I needed to throw it.”

The loss ends his team’s hopes of earning a few record-breaking moments. Gushue, third Mark Nichols and lead Geoff Walker had the chance to set the record for most championship wins with seven, in addition to the most consecutive Brier wins with four following last year’s triumph in Regina.

As he watched Gushue prepare to throw his final stone, Jacobs estimated his own chance of stealing the match at “five per cent.”

“I would say with how good brushing is and how good Brad is, and how much distance was between our rock and the guard.” Jacobs continued.

“Maybe five per cent or less, to be honest with you. So like I said, that is the biggest break of the year. Maybe the biggest break that I’ve seen for us in my career.”

No team in the final four had been together for a full year.

Jacobs had replaced Brendan Bottcher, who went on to join Gushue mere months ago.

E.J. Harnden, deposed from Team Gushue, joined Dunstone—now a two-time Brier finalist—a few days later.

B. J. Neufeld, recently dropped from Team Dunstone, only joined fourth-place finisher Reid Carruthers in late January.