Team Gushue and Team Jacobs earn wins in storybook opener at 2026 Montana’s Brier

An opening night packed-house crowd at the 2026 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI, propelled fan favourites Team Newfoundland and Labrador’s Brad Gushue and Team Canada’s Brad Jacobs to respective wins on Friday evening at the Mary Brown’s Centre in St. John’s.

The wins served as a homecoming affair for both teams; with Team Jacobs having barely rested after a gold-medal performance at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina to finding itself as the defending champion in the Canadian Men’s Curling Championship, and Brad Gushue, who will retire from competitive men’s curling at the end of this season, playing in the Brier in his home city for the first time since 2017, where he was crowned champion.

Gushue’s team may look a different from the 2017 champion lineup, but the objective remains the same. He, alongside his RE/MAX Centre – St. John’s Curling Club outfit of third Mark Nichols, second/vice-skip Brendan Bottcher, lead Geoff Walker, alternate Adam Casey and coach Jeff Hoffart, took a positive step towards another Canadian men’s crown with a 10-2 win over Québec’s Team Jean-Michel Ménard (0-1; Des Collines, Glenmore, Belvédère, Etchemin, Valleyfield) in Draw 1.

Gushue could barely take a step without being cheered on by the crowd, whose energy was palpable long before first practice has started.

“I actually got a little teary-eyed there when it kept going,” said Gushue of his reception from the Newfoundland and Labrador faithful. “To see that, and to feel it and hear it, definitely got the jitters going. Even in the practice, when we had the draw to the button, I haven’t had the shakes quite the way I had them in practice there in a long time. To get that roar was really special and hopefully we get more roars like that all week.”

And though the reception from fans was warmer than a steaming plate of Jiggs dinner, Gushue knows that balancing those emotions is just as important as embracing them.

“For me, and our team, we can really get hyped up for that and I don’t know if that’s a place that necessarily benefits us,” said Gushue. “You want to make sure that you have that motivation and embrace the crowd, but you also have to stay at a good level. I’ve been caught in the past with getting too hyped up with crowds and generally don’t play well. I wanted to make sure that I stayed level; stayed composed and within myself.”

Composure won the day in the victory, which despite looking lopsided on the scoreboard, was a tightly contested 2-2 game until the seventh end.

“For how nervous I felt and how shaky I was at the beginning, I think we did pretty good,” said Gushue. “I missed that one draw there in six that I’d love to have back, but outside of that, made all the shots.”

The seventh end is what largely decided the contest where Gushue posted a score of four, breaking the tie and creating some space on the scoreboard.

“We got in a great position in that end,” said Gushue. “It’s an end that you typically try to blank to gain control in the eighth end, but we got in a good position. Geoff made a good hit and roll, and they got a miss, and we tried to attack on Brendan’s. We just had the angles set up really good.

Meanwhile, for Team Canada’s Brad Jacobs, the warm reception from the St. John’s crowd was exactly what his team needed to ride an 8-3 win over Prince Edward Island’s Team Tyler Smith (0-1; Crapaud).

And though the reception wasn’t quite as ruckus as it was for Team Gushue, the fans in St. John’s shared the love with Team Jacobs, which Jacobs sincerely appreciated.

“There’s nowhere else you will hear a louder crown than here in St. John’s, Newfoundland,” said Jacobs. “I did not expect St. John’s to cheer for our team when we entered the building. I thought that was really nice of them. Obviously, they have a lot of respect for our team and what we did over in Italy for Canada. Newfoundland is a big part of Canada. There’s a lot of history, tradition, and passionate people. We certainly want to let everyone here know that we won that gold for them as well; all of Canada.”

Despite the welcomed reception, Friday’s match wasn’t always a sure thing for the recent gold medallist. Team Canada started the game without hammer and surrendered a deuce in the first.

“Little bit of a rocky start,” said Jacobs. “They got hammer on us and scored a deuce early, so we had to battle. Got some breaks, some misses, and just kept learning throughout that game. Learning the sheet, learning how to make shots and we were able to string a bunch together.”

Team Prince Edward Island had its chances, staring down a potential three-score in the sixth, but didn’t manage to execute.

“We got a huge break in the sixth end,” said Jacobs. “I think nine out of ten times, they probably make that shot and we’re down two. A really big break. We put them in some trouble otherwise, got some misses, and that’s the name of the game.”

And despite winning an Olympic gold medal all but six short days ago, Jacobs says the fatigue level is being managed well.

“Medium,” said Jacobs about the level of fatigue he’s experiencing. “It’s not ‘high’ anymore, but we’re all battling some sort of little cold or illness, and just trying to get used to be being back in Canada, the time zone change, and getting rest.”

Lead Ben Hebert sat out the match due to illness. He is expected to return.

In other action from Friday evening, Team Newfoundland and Labrador, skipped by Nathan Young (1-0; St. John’s) doubled up Nunavut’s Team Derek Samagalski (0-1; Iqaluit) 8-4 and Ontario’s Team Jayden King (1-0; Tillsonburg) made short work of Nova Scotia’s Team Kendal Thompson (0-1; Halifax) 11-4.

The Montana’s Brier continues Saturday with draws at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (all times NT).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 20256 Montana’s Brier are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/.

TSN and RDS2 will provide complete coverage of the 2026 Montana’s Brier. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2026 Montana’s Brier, go to www.curling.ca/2026brier/tickets/

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/fr/2026brier/nouvelles/