Team McDonald advances to playoffs at 2025 Home Hardware Pre-Trials

WOLFVILLE, N.S. — Four years ago, Jordon McDonald was competing for junior championships. Now he is only a handful of wins away from moving on to the most elite Canadian men’s curling event on the calendar.

Team McDonald (5-2; Winnipeg) won its final round-robin game at the 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trials and clinched the final spot available in the three-team men’s playoff at Andrew H. McCain Arena.

“It’s really hard to believe. As a young guy, it’s so different playing men’s from juniors, like juniors, you only really have two events, the provincial juniors and the national juniors, to really build towards,” McDonald said. “Every (men’s) event means you have to earn points towards the pre-trials, Olympics, Briers, and it’s hard to believe that we’re creeping into a (Grand) Slam in two weeks. If you would have told a 12-year-old me that I would be playing in this event now, that would have been unbelievable. I would have been amazed.”

Playing in the final men’s game in the round-robin schedule on Thursday evening, Team McDonald knew the mission was simple: win and advance, lose and go home.

All that stood in the way was a game against the reigning Ontario provincial champion Team Sam Mooibroek (3-4, Whitby, Ont.). In the end, Team McDonald earned a 10-8 win.

The two NextGen-aged skips have already faced each other four times this season at some major events including Curling Canada’s U-25 NextGen Classic final, a Grand Slam of Curling Tier 2 event, the PointsBet Invitational and once in the round-robin at the Home Hardware Pre-Trials.

The latest win gave Team McDonald a 3-2 edge in head-to-head games this season, and arguably one of the most important wins of the 22-year-old skip’s career.

“It’s super important for our development as a team, and we just want to keep getting better. Who knows, maybe we can keep winning games and maybe get to the Olympics, you never know. I think we just want to continue to play well and build and see what happens,” said McDonald.

Team McDonald faces Team Scott Howard (4-3; Navan, Ont.) on Friday at 9 a.m. (all times AT) in the men’s semifinal. Team Howard sat idle and officially qualified for the playoffs after the last-stone draw distances were tallied prior to the draw on Thursday night.

Team Braden Calvert (5-2; Winnipeg) clinched first in the round robin and a direct bye to the best-of-three final earlier this afternoon and will meet the winner of the semifinal in game one of the finals on Friday night at 7 p.m.

In women’s action, Team Selena Sturmay (5-2; Edmonton) clinched first place in the round robin earlier today. Team Danielle Inglis (4-3) earned a 9-8 extra-end win over the top-ranked team but ended the week with a loss.

Team Kayla MacMillan (5-2; Victoria) was guaranteed a spot in the semifinal heading into Thursday night and finished strong by clinching the second seed in the playoffs. Team MacMillan bettered Team Beth Peterson (2-5; Winnipeg) with a 7-6 win.

The last semifinal spot came down to a game between Team Ashley Thevenot (4-3; Martensville, Sask.) and Team Krista Scharf (4-3; Thunder Bay, Ont.). Team Thevenot claimed a 6-5 win and advanced to the semifinal.

Team Myla Plett (3-4; Edmonton/Sherwood Park, Alta.) had an opportunity to be in the mix for the final playoff spot, but couldn’t pick up a win against Team Nancy Martin (2-5; Martensville, Sask.) with an 11-6 loss.

Team MacMillan faces Team Thevenot in the women’s semifinal at 2 p.m., on Friday. The winner advances to face Team Sturmay in game one of the women’s finals on Saturday at 9 a.m.

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/.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible HERE.