Four-ender puts Team McDonald one win away at Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trials

WOLFVILLE, N.S. — Jordon McDonald didn’t think he was going to be playing in the finals on Friday night at the 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trials, so the fact he is now one win away from earning a trials berth comes as a bit of a surprise.

Team McDonald defeated Team Braden Calvert 10-5 in Game 1 of the best-of-three final between the two Winnipeg-based teams. Now, with a one-game lead in the series, Team McDonald has a chance to clinch the final men’s spot at the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials, presented by Connect Hearing, during Saturday afternoon’s rematch at 2 p.m. (all times AT) the Andrew H. McCain Arena.

“It’s different playing a best-of-three, you’ve got to be in a different mindset,” McDonald said.

“But now it feels like we’re in the final and we came through the A (side), but we didn’t. We really came through the semis, so it’s definitely interesting and I think getting that first game in a best-of-three is huge.”

To earn its spot in the best-of-three final, Team McDonald played earlier today. Fortune favoured the Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club team in a game against Team Scott Howard (Navan, Ont.). Team Howard jammed its hit for the win on a lone back-12 stone, leaving Team McDonald as the unexpected beneficiary of the finals berth.

“It was nuts, that’s probably an understatement,” McDonald said. “I’ve seen some wild things happen in the game, and to win you’ve got to get a lot of breaks going your way. If you look at a lot of events, the winning team gets a lot of breaks, and we’re just hoping that we take advantage of that break and just come out strong again tomorrow.”

McDonald believed his team benefited from playing the semifinal earlier today and getting a better feel for the ice and stones.  That showed in the statistics, with Team McDonald outshooting Team Calvert 92 per cent to 80 per cent.

However, Calvert seemed to have an answer for every offensive rush produced by Team McDonald – until the eighth end. Leading by one, Team McDonald forced Calvert into a draw to try and cut down scoring. He was light and Team McDonald discussed ways to score as many as five points. In the end, the team executed a low-side tap to score four.

“I think it was worth the risk. We were already (sitting) two and there wasn’t really a way we could get less than two,” McDonald said. “We were up one at the time, so I think being up three at the very least, we could maybe gamble a bit, and I had just thrown pretty much that exact shot, so we knew exactly what it was going to do, and I loved it in my hand.”

Team McDonald controlled the game’s narrative, but Calvert made plenty of touch shots to keep his team in the mix. In the fifth end, Calvert made a beautiful hit-and-roll to a frozen position to limit his opposition’s scoring. Calvert also found the button on numerous occasions to score some singles.

“Braden made some great shots and we definitely had opportunities,” McDonald said. “I think we controlled the whole game. We would just miss a couple of shots late – maybe not miss them, just not roll to a perfect spot – and Braden would make a great shot. But I think that’s just where we needed to stay patient, and we did exactly that to get the four-ball in eight.”

Game 3, if necessary, is scheduled for Sunday at 11 a.m.

The women’s final begins on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Top-seed Team Selena Sturmay (Edmonton) faces Team Kayla MacMillan (Victoria) in a battle between two teams that finished the round robin at 5-2.

Game 2 is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday. If necessary, Game 3 is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Sunday.

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