Team Dunstone defeats Team Gushue in Montana’s Canadian Trials extra-end classic

Every draw at the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials, presented by Connect Hearing, features a marquee match. On Monday night, the names Gushue and Dunstone were featured at the top in neon lights.

It is not often that curling fans can see a high-stakes match-up between two of the top Canadian men’s curling teams on a weekday evening, but that’s exactly what was on show at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, with the two undefeated teams jockeying for the top spot in the men’s competition. And it sure delivered.

Team Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., aimed to repeat its success from the Montana’s Trials four years ago. Their opponents, Team Dunstone, have finished as runners-up in two of the last three Canadian men’s championships and appeared ready for a breakthrough at this event.

This time around, Team Dunstone (4-0) defeated Team Gushue (3-1) by a score of 9-7 in an extra-end thriller.

“That was 11 ends of complete and utter mayhem. I thought we controlled the majority of that game,” said a level-headed Dunstone postgame. “Again, didn’t start with hammer, we just did what we do. We flipped hammer right away, you know, cracked it open in seven, and then Brad took his turn doing what he does, and that’s being Brad Gushue late in games, and he put relentless amounts of pressure on us.”

On its last, Team Dunstone — with vice-skip Colton Lott, second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden and coach Caleb Flaxey — blasted its own rock into a couple of staggered stones in the four-foot, clearing out some granite and leaving the team with two game-winning points. On the shot prior, Team Gushue ticked its draw off a stone in the house to nibble a sliver of the button to sit shot stone, which made Dunstone throw his last.

However, Dunstone needed an extra end to seal the deal after Team Gushue clawed back from a mid-game deficit. In a dramatic 10th end — both skips had under 10 seconds left after throwing their last shots of the end — Team Gushue nudged its game-tying point into the four-foot to force the 11th frame.

The teams were tied until the seventh end, when Dunstone scored three. Team Dunstone took advantage of a few Team Gushue back-end errors, filling the button and four-foot with four counters. On his last shot, Gushue made a skillful tap to limit the damage, but Dunstone was still left with a difficult draw to score three. The Harnden brothers swept hard to guide Dunstone’s shot, which ricocheted off the Gushue stone to count. Uncharacteristically, Dunstone followed the rock down, calling to the sweepers from beside the moving stone in the house.

“Man, what a cool shot, that was fun. I don’t know what I was doing, getting like right into the top of the button there, that was weird. I can’t believe I did that. But the Olympic trials does strange things to people, I guess,” Dunstone said.

Dunstone’s front-end Harnden brothers outperformed Team Gushue’s, which played a large role in the team’s undefeated record at the event.

“The Harnden Brothers, I mean, it speaks for itself what they do. You know why they won this once, you know why they’ve been in the final of this. We feed off it and they rose to the occasion. They’re just absolute pros in what was our biggest game of the week,” Dunstone said. “I mean, I don’t want that to go unnoticed. They’re a huge driver of this team. Me and Colton, we have stuff to close it, but those guys are absolute animals in setting up. We haven’t been in trouble all week and that happens because of them.”

With three round-robin games left, Team Dunstone’s path to the top and a spot in the best-of-three finals is clearer. The upcoming matches are against Team Kevin Koe (2-2, Calgary), Team Jacobs (3-1, Calgary), and Team McEwen (2-2, Saskatoon).

“We’ve got to make sure we come out firing tomorrow, it’s a long ways to go. We’re playing some really good teams down the stretch,” Dunstone said. “Back to the drawing board after this, and just got to come out firing tomorrow. If we’re lucky enough to make the playoffs, whoever’s there, we’ll be ready.”

In other Monday evening action, Team McEwen defeated Team Koe 9-7; Team Jacobs doubled Team Jordon McDonald (0-4; Winnipeg) 6-3; and Team Rylan Kleiter (1-3; Saskatoon) earned its first win of the event, bettering Team John Epping (1-3; Sudbury, Ont.) with a 10-7 win.

The 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials continues on Tuesday at 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (all times Atlantic).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials are available by CLICKING HERE.

TSN and RDS will provide coverage of the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials, go to www.curling.ca/2025trials/tickets.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/fr/2025trials/nouvelles.