Team McDonald steadfast in bounce-back victory at 2025 Home Hardware Pre-Trials

WOLFVILLE, N.S. — When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

It’s a saying that rings true for Team Jordon McDonald (3-2; Winnipeg), who collected an extra-end 8-7 victory over the host-province Team Owen Purcell (2-3; Halifax) on Wednesday afternoon at the 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trials, hosted at the Andrew H. McCain Arena in Wolfville, N.S.

It wasn’t an easy win for the Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club outfit, completed by vice-skip Jacques Gauthier, second Elias Huminicki, lead Cameron Olafson and coach Bryan Miki, who needed a short runback on McDonald’s final stone to eliminate a Purcell counter for the win.

Manitobans are notably hardy people, however, and McDonald was comfortable in the heat of battle, blemishes and all, leaping out to an early lead without hammer.

“We got off to a great start in the first end with the steal of two,” said McDonald. “I think we kind of then just traded forces and I think there were misses for both teams. We definitely missed some opportunities with hammer. Just a couple rolls that didn’t go to the right spots.”

While every win is important at the Home Hardware Pre-Trials, Wednesday afternoon’s was a massive momentum swing for Team McDonald, who dropped two contests in yesterday’s action: 8-4 to Team Calvert (3-2; Winnipeg) and 9-6 to Team Jean-Michel Ménard (3-2; Montréal).

“That was a huge win,” said McDonald. “It keeps us alive. I think two losses is probably the absolute [maximum] we want to be at. We had a rough day yesterday.”

McDonald says there were still bright spots in yesterday’s two-loss day and is focusing on how to leverage those experiences into positive outcomes.

“The first game (Tuesday) wasn’t great, but we played well in the second game,” said McDonald. “We just kind of didn’t close out the game. (Wednesday’s) win feels great. I thought we played well as a team, and we did a great job getting back in the game after giving up three.”

And with some newly minted momentum at its back, Team McDonald is welcoming the change of direction with two round-robin games remaining in its Pre-Trials campaign.

“I think we just have to keep playing the way we’re playing,” said McDonald. “Just maybe get a couple extra percentage points on the board. Just sharpen up a couple little things here and there. We’re definitely going to have to play two solid games coming home. Try to get two wins on the board and then see what happens.”

In other action Wednesday afternoon, Team Calvert won a barnburner 12-9 against Team Jayden King (2-3; London, Ont.). Team Sam Mooibroek (3-2; Whitby, Ont.) won an all-Ontario battle 10-9 over Team Mark Kean (0-5; Woodstock, Ont.) and Team Scott Howard (4-1; Navan, Ont.) bounced Team Ménard 7-4. In women’s action, Team Selena Sturmay (4-1; Edmonton) took down Team Ashley Thevenot (2-3; Martensville, Sask.) 11-5.

In additional action from Wednesday morning, Team Thevenot edged Team Danielle Inglis (1-3; Ottawa) 8-7. Team Kayla MacMillan (4-0; Victoria) stayed perfect in defeating Team Krista Scharf (1-3; Thunder Bay, Ont.) 8-2 while Team Sturmay vanquished Team Nancy Martin (1-3; Martensville, Sask.) 7-6 and Team Beth Peterson (2-2; Winnipeg) confirmed a 10-4 win over Team Myla Plett (2-2; Edmonton/Sherwood Park, Alta.).

The 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trials continues Wednesday at 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/.