Image credit: Curling Canada

By Aaron Schulze

Kamloops at the Trials

Dunstone in the driver’s seat, Brown reeling at Canadian Curling Olympic Trials

Nov 25, 2025 | 8:27 AM

HALIFAX — Kamloops resident Matt Dunstone and his Manitoba-based curling team is in the driver’s seat to securing a playoff berth at the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in Halifax.

After earning a 7-3 victory over Rylan Kleiter’s Saskatchewan team earlier on Monday (Nov. 24), Dunstone’s team defeated Team Gushue 9-7 in extra ends in the evening. The team’s skip, Brad Gushue, is a former Olympic gold medallist who won the 2021 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials and took home bronze in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Gushue tied the game 7-7 in the 10th end. On its last rock, Team Dunstone — with skip Dunstone, 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.

“That was 11 ends of complete and utter mayhem. I thought we controlled the majority of that game,” Dunstone said in a Curling Canada news release issued Monday. “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.”

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Team Dunstone entered the trials as the No. 1 ranked men’s curling team in Canada and No. 2 ranked team in the world. They lead the men’s standings with a 4-0 record with three matches remaining in the round robin portion of the trials.

The top three teams in the standings advance to the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials playoffs, with the top seed earning a berth to the best-of-three final.

Dunstone will take on Team Koe of Alberta (2-2) Tuesday at 10:00 a.m.

In the women’s draw, Corryn Brown and her team based out of the Kamloops Curling Club have fallen to 1-4 during the round robin stage of trials. They were defeated by Team Homan 10-3 Tuesday morning.

The loss effectively puts an end to Team Brown’s pursuit for a playoff berth at the trials. According to Curling Canada, there are no tiebreaker games played during the trials. If two or more teams are tied, it will be broken first by head-to-head record. Failing that, ties will be broken by the total distance from draws for hammer in each game.

With two games remaining, the best record Team Brown can achieve in the round robin stage is 3-4. Team Brown has lost head-to-head matches with two teams who have secured three wins: Team Black and Team Lawes. Team Einarson and Team Homan are No. 1 and No. 2 in the round robin standings with records of 5-0 and 4-1, respectively.

Team Brown will take on Team Cameron (0-5) of Manitoba at 3:00 p.m. Pacific Tuesday.

The Trials are scheduled to wrap up on Sunday (Nov. 30). The winners from the men’s and women’s side will represent Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.