Kelly Knapp is fully aware that should he manage to skip his Regina team into the playoffs at the 2026 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI, it will not only take two more days of winning, it will also result in being among the more unpopular guys in St. John’s, N.L., on Wednesday.
Knapp’s Saskatchewan champions remained in the playoff hunt Tuesday at the Mary Brown’s Centre with an 8-2 win over Nunavut’s Team Derek Samagalski (0-6; Iqaluit), snapping a two-game losing streak to improve to 2-3 in Pool A round-robin play.
Making the playoffs for Knapp, vice-skip Brennen Jones, second Dustin Kidby, lead Mat Ring, alternate Trent Knapp and coach Brian McCusker will almost surely require winning their final three games.
And wouldn’t you know it — Wednesday’s assignment will require Team Knapp to beat not one, but TWO, home teams from Newfoundland and Labrador: a 9:30 a.m. matchup with Team Nathan Young, and then a 7:30 battle with Team Brad Gushue.
Suffice it to say, Knapp doesn’t expect to be a crowd favourite if things go his way on Wednesday.
“Oh, for sure,” he said with a smile. “But honestly this crowd’s been incredible; even just the warm ovation at the end of this game — I’ve never been a part of anything like that before.
“I know what to expect tomorrow, I’m not going to hold it against them, that’s just the way it goes out here.”Québec fourth Félix Asselin calls line on Tuesday afternoon at the 2026 Montana’s Brier at the Mary Brown’s Centre in St. John’s. (Photo, Curling Canada/Andrew Klaver)
The win — combined with a late-night Patch “debrief” on Monday night — got Team Knapp back in a better state of mind after frustrating back-to-back losses to Quebec’s Team Jean-Michel Ménard and Prince Edward Island’s Team Tyler Smith on Monday.
“I went to the Patch (Monday night) to hang out with family and friends, so it was a little bit of a late night, had a drink or two,” said Knapp with a grin. “But I’m always up so early so I actually got up, I went for a run, I did a stretch, then had a shower and then went back to bed for a couple hours, so that’s kind of how I operate sometimes.
“It’s always tough to lose a couple of games at the Brier; especially when you’re really close in both games and I kind of felt like I let my guys down in both. So last night was a tough night and I was just really anxious to get out here today and just start throwing well. We had a game plan today and we really executed.”
Team Knapp will need more of the same on Wednesday against the home teams, before closing out the round robin on Thursday afternoon against Ontario’s Team Jayden King. Adding to the pressure, of course, is repping the only province or territory in Canada that has curling as its official sport.
“You feel the weight of the province a bit,” admitted Knapp. “Of course, Saskatchewan is pulling hard for us, so it’s always hard, and we still have an uphill battle ahead here, but I at least feel like today we got doing the right things. We have a couple big games against the hometowners tomorrow; I’m not sure if it’s in our own control or not right now, but it certainly is that we can win our last three and see where we stand. I think there’s better curling in store tomorrow than we had yesterday.”
Both of the Newfoundland and Labrador teams from St. John’s that Saskatchewan will face on Wednesday prevailed on Tuesday afternoon, although neither win came easily.
Team Gushue (5-0) needed a steal of two in the ninth end, and an extra end, to hold off a stubborn Team Kendal Thompson of Nova Scotia (1-4; Halifax) 9-8.
Team Young, meanwhile, improved its record to 3-3 with a 10-8 triumph over Ontario (3-3; Tillsonburg).
In the other game on the ice, defending champs Team Canada, skipped by Brad Jacobs (5-0; Calgary) kept pace with Team Gushue with an 8-4 win over Quebec (3-2; Des Collines, Glenmore, Belvédère, Etchemin, Valleyfield).
The Yukon’s Team Thomas Scoffin (1-3; Whitehorse) had the Pool A bye on Tuesday afternoon.
The 2026 Montana’s Brier continues Tuesday with the late draw at 7:30 p.m. (all times NT).
Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2026 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.
