Team Ménard tied for men’s lead at 2025 Home Hardware Pre-Trials

WOLFVILLE, N.S. — Curling is a sport for life, which was on display Tuesday night at the 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trials. The youngest and oldest skips in the men’s field – 22-year-old Jordon McDonald and 49-year-old Jean-Michel Ménard – squared off for a share of the round-robin lead on Tuesday evening.

With 27 years, six months and eight days between them, experience still prevailed over youth.

Ménard – who skips the game and throws third – fourth Félix Asselin, second Martin Crête and lead Jean-François Trépanier scored four in the 10th end to earn a 9-6 win and improve to 3-1 against Winnipeg’s Team McDonald (2-2).

“Honestly, it’s a young person’s game now. I know I’m closing in on seniors. Actually, I’ll be a senior this year,” Ménard said. “Just personally being able to still compete at that level and give good games to the top teams in the country is good, and seeing a team like Jordan play so well, call a good game, very aggressive, and making lots of shots now. I think our sport is looking good for our country in the next couple of years.”

Down by one in the 10th, Team Ménard grouped four counters into the four-foot, and Team McDonald was light on its freeze attempt to try and force an extra end.

“It’s a very tough field. The eight teams are pretty evenly matched, so it’s a question of being an opportunist when you have the chance. We knew coming into today that we needed at least one of the two wins to be 3-1 and be in the hunt,” said Ménard, who lost 7-6 on Tuesday morning to Team Owen Purcell (2-2; Halifax).

The win elevates Team Ménard into an enviable position among the eight-team men’s field at Andrew H. McCain Arena. Now approaching the halfway point of the round-robin schedule, Team Ménard is tied for first with Team Scott Howard (3-1; Navan, Ont.) has the inside track on one of the three available playoff spots: a second- or third-place finish for a semifinal berth, or, ideally, a first-place seed that guarantees a spot in the best-of-three finals starting this Friday.

Ménard’s storied career contains 10 Montana’s Brier appearances (including a championship win in 2006), a world men’s silver medal, two Canadian mixed gold and one world mixed gold. Despite competing at his fourth Home Hardware Canadian Pre-Trials event this year, Ménard is missing one thing from his storied resumé: an appearance at the Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials.

“I’ve been lucky. I’ve played in a Continental Cup, played some Canada Cups and some Slams. That’s the only thing, personally, that’s missing from my resume: playing in the Trials. I think that’s my fourth Pre-Trials, and I have never been able to make it out of it. So that would be one of my last things in my bucket in my career, saying I’ve played at least one time at the Trials,” Ménard said.

In other men’s action on Tuesday night, Team Howard (3-1; Navan, Ont.) kept itself at the top of the standings with a 6-3 win against Team Mark Kean (0-4; Woodstock, Ont.); Team Owen Purcell edged Team Braden Calvert (1-3; Winnipeg) and Team Jadyen King (2-2; London, Ont.) got itself back into the pack with a 9-5 win over Team Sam Mooibroek (2-2; Whitby, Ont.). In the only women’s game of the draw, Team Beth Peterson (1-2; Winnipeg) got its first win of the event with a 7-2 victory against Team Ashley Thevenot (1-2; Martensville, Sask.).

The 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trials continues Wednesday with draws at 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (all times AT).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trials are available by CLICKING HERE.

Live streaming of the 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trials is available on Curling Canada’s YouTube during the round robin and semifinals by CLICKING HERE. TSN and RDS will provide coverage of the 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Pre-Trials best-of-three finals starting Friday night. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trials, go to www.curling.ca/2025pretrials/tickets/.