Team Calvert pulls even with win over Team McDonald in best-of-three final at 2025 Home Hardware Pre-Trials

With the series now tied at one a piece, the lone men’s berth available for the 2025 Montana’s Trials, presented by Connect Hearing, will come down to a sudden-death winner-take-all contest Sunday at 11 a.m. (all times AT).

“Feels good,” said skip Calvert. “Had to rebound after yesterday. We got away from our game plan and kind of got into a hitting matchup with them yesterday. We had to slow things down and get a little bit more junk out there. It’s a battle and we hung with it.”

Team Calvert, completed by vice-skip Corey Chambers, second Kyle Kurz, lead Brendan Bilawka, and alternate Rob Gordon, was the top seed after round-robin play and received a direct bye to the best-of-three final, carrying a 5-2 record. Calvert said today’s performance is a good benchmark, but his team still has another gear available.

“Being honest with ourselves? We’re still not as sharp as we want to be,” said Calvert. “We’ll focus on being even sharper tomorrow, but definitely a step in the right direction after coming out flat last night and not getting a handle on the ice early.”

While the Fort Rouge Curling Club representatives are technically underdogs, ranked 18th overall on the 2025-2026 CTRS rankings and eight places behind the no. 10-ranked Team McDonald, Calvert doesn’t let ranking details impede his performance.

“It’s just straight curling,” said Calvert. “I know our team is as good as any team out here, so it’s just about going out there and executing and trying to do the best we can.”

Team Calvert’s primary offensive deployment was a deluge of steals, as the Winnipeggers collected five of their eight points without hammer.

“That was what we talked about going into the game; getting more rocks in play,” said Calvert. “Everyone knows how good of a hitter Jordon is and if you can maybe get some points that he’s drawing against, or get some taps, that’s the way to beat him. We’ll focus on that.”

At the Montana’s Trials, set for November 22-30, 2025 at Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, each gender’s eight-team field will play a seven-game round robin, with only three teams advancing to the playoffs. Second and third place meet in a semifinal, with the winner advancing to a best-of-three final series set for Nov. 28–30.

In Game1 of the women’s best-of-three final at the 2025 Home Hardware Pre-Trials Saturday morning, Team Selena Sturmay (Edmonton) defeated Team Kayla MacMillan (Victoria) 8-5. Game 2 is scheduled for 7 p.m. and, if required, Game 3 will take place Sunday at 4 p.m.

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/.