Without injured Nichols, Dunstone off to perfect start at Grand Slam

With Colton Flasch filling in for Nichols, the reigning Brier champions doubled Team Yamaguchi of Karuizawa, Japan, 6-3 on Wednesday (Nov. 4) and crushed Team Hlushak of Edmonton 14-1 on Tuesday.

Results this season for Dunstone have been mixed.

The new-look rink missed the playoffs at the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard and won the ATB Okotoks Classic in September. Dunstone made quarter-final exits at the GSOC Invitational in Victoria and Henderson Metal Fall Classic in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., in October.

“I think we’ve been trending in the right direction every single week,” Dunstone said. “It was nice to get a win under our belts early, get us back and going and confident. Mark’s been an awesome addition to the group. There hasn’t been any major changes any of us have had to make. He’s been the perfect fit for our team.”

Dunstone said he tussled with off-season motivation deficiency.

“I would say there was a bit of that for myself, for sure,” said Dunstone, who suffered defeat in the Olympic trials and world championship finals last season. “As the season gets going and you start planning stuff and start ramping stuff back up, you get that back pretty easily. It’s pretty easy to turn the brain back on. That was great, awesome that we were able to accomplish that. Now, let’s go do it again. Our goal is to do one game better at the world championship than what we did last time.”

The Winnipeg-born Kamloops resident offered an unprompted tidbit on his mentality this season.

“I would admit the one thing that has been good is you feel a little more free now, just kind of having that monkey off the back,” Dunstone said, referring to his Canadian championship triumph. “Just not having that on the back of your shoulder staring you down, having that off of there, free and clear, has been a nice change going into this season versus others.”

Team Dunstone can claim $42,000 if it rolls to the Masters title with an undefeated record.

Two more round-robin games remain, including a clash on Thursday against Team Van Amsterdam of Edmonton.

“We’re confident that we’re going to be able to get on a a roll here pretty soon,” Dunstone said.

by Marty Hastings

Without injured Nichols, Dunstone off to perfect start at Grand Slam

Our Community