Team Jacobs prevails in battle of current Canadian champs at 2025 PointsBet Invitational

If young curlers are the future, then consider current Montana’s Brier champion Brad Jacobs their professor in the school of hard rocks.

Lessons from the likes of a current Canadian men’s champion tend to be brutally to the point, and class was firmly in session Thursday evening at the 2025 PointsBet Invitational, as Team Jacobs took down the reigning New Holland Canadian U-20 men’s curling champion Team Calan MacIsaac (0-2; Truro, N.S.) 12-0.

“Great win,” said Jacobs. “Made a lot of shots. The ice was great; really conducive to the way we practise and kind of what we’re looking for. The guys made a lot of shots right from the start of the game.”

Team Jacobs wasted little time with its lesson plan, jumping to a 9-0 lead headed into the fifth-end break. The offensive deluge would continue in the latter ends as well, perhaps demoralizing the young MacIsaac squadron.

“I think they got a little down on themselves early,” said Jacobs. “It became challenging for them to string together a bunch of shots in a row. That’s what I saw.”

The win improves the Calgary cohort of vice-skip Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant, lead Ben Hebert and coach Paul Webster to a 1-1 record after dropping Wednesday evening’s contest at the WinSport Event Centre 6-5 to fellow Glencoe Club reps Team Kevin Koe.

“For us, it was just continue to get a guard up, continue to throw the routine shots and make them because we still have two games left,” said Jacobs.

As the eighth end came to conclusion, MacIsaac would have a shot on his final score to land on the scoreboard, but it overcurled, surrendering the steal.

Even with the result, Jacobs has a lot of respect for the U-20 Canadian champs.

“They hung in there,” said Jacobs of his youthful opposition. “They still tried to get a deuce there in the eighth end, so I certainly admire that. We were pulling for them to get the two points in the eighth.”

Jacobs himself is a past champion this event as well, playing vice-skip for Reid Carruthers in 2023 in Oakville, Ont. Repeating as champion and securing the $35,000 top prize isn’t top of mind for Jacobs, however, as improving ahead of the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials, presented by Connect Hearing, is the priority for his team.

“The theme for our team right now is just to continue to learn,” said Jacobs. “Would it be nice to win? Of course. Are we going to try to win? Absolutely. Does it mean anything to win here? No, I don’t think so. We had a really good game yesterday against a tough Team Koe. They played great, but we had some really great discussions on what to do to improve.”

MacIsaac, who alongside third Nathan Gray, second Owain Fisher, lead/vice-skip Christopher McCurdy, alternate Nick Mosher and coach Craig Burgess, will represent Canada at the upcoming 2026 World Junior Curling Championships in Tårnby, Denmark, took the loss in stride.

“We had a bit of a rough game, but I think we learned a lot out there,” said McCurdy, who celebrated his 19th birthday on Thursday. “It’s always good to play against those guys to see how they’re playing. It’s a great experience to play against someone you’ve been watching your whole life.”

Meanwhile in other Thursday evening men’s action, Team Matt Dunstone (2-0; Winnipeg) needed a final-stone hit in the 10th end to finish off Team Sam Mooibroek (0-2; Whitby, Ont.) 9-6 while Team Mike McEwen (2-0; Saskatoon) was dominant in an 8-4 win over Team Jordon McDonald (1-1; Winnipeg). Team John Epping (2-0; Toronto) stayed hot in a 9-3 win over Team Koe (1-1).

In the lone women’s match on Thursday evening, Team Rachel Homan (2-0; Ottawa) dispatched Team Kaitlyn Lawes (1-1; Winnipeg) 8-3 in eight ends.

Round-robin victories in regulation are worth three points in the standings; draw-to-the-button tiebreaker wins are worth two points, while one point goes to teams that lose in the tiebreaker shot and no points to losing teams in regulation.

The 2025 PointsBet Invitational continues with games Friday at 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. (all times Mountain).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2025 PointsBet Invitational are available by CLICKING HERE.

TSN and RDS will provide coverage of the 2025 PointsBet Invitational. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2025 PointsBet Invitational, go to www.curling.ca/2025pointsbetinvitational/tickets/.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/fr/2025pointsbetinvitational/nouvelles/