Dunstone beats Carruthers in thrilling Viterra final

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This article was published 12/02/2023 (1009 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEEPAWA – Matt Dunstone’s previously been to the Tim Hortons Brier on four occasions.

When the 27-year-old Winnipeg product heads to this year’s competition in London, Ont., next month, he will do as the skip for Team Manitoba.

Dunstone’s team from the Fort Rouge Curling Club — which features third B.J. Neufeld, second Colton Lott and lead Ryan Harnden — scored three points in the final end on Sunday afternoon in Neepawa to defeat Reid Carruthers’ Morris side in an 8-7 affair to win the 2023 Viterra Championship at the Yellowhead Centre.

This is the first Manitoba men’s provincial title for Dunstone, who won Saskatchewan crowns in 2018 and 2020. He had reached the final with his junior squad in 2016 in Selkirk, but lost to Mike McEwen.

“It’s a pretty darn special feeling,” Dunstone said after the game. “This is what you dream of.

“I took a five-year hiatus a little west of here and to come back in year one and win this event is incredible. We’ve worked so hard to get to this point and we found another gear this week.”

This was also the first provincial men’s title for Lott, who was part of Dunstone’s team seven years and was the losing skip in last year’s Viterra final in Selkirk, which was won by McEwen.

“The heartbreak from that one definitely hung around for quite a bit,” Lott said. “To come back here and grab that first title is unbelievable.”

For Neufeld, Sunday’s win marked his third provincial men’s title to go along with a pair of Alberta crowns he won with Kevin Koe.

Harnden will be making his 14th appearance at the Brier next month, but it will be the first time that the 2014 Olympic gold medalist won’t be wearing the colours of Northern Ontario.

“To get to the Brier is special no matter who you represent,” said Harnden, who calls Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., home.

While Dunstone had the hammer in the final end, he was down by two points after Carruthers picked up a deuce in the eighth and stole a point in the ninth.

The turning point in the 10th end on Derek Samagalski’s second shot as Connor Njegovan burned the rock as it was heading towards the house. After a brief discussion with Dunstone, Carruthers removed it from play.

“That was a tough one,” Carruthers said. “I feel really bad for Connor as he played great all week and to burn a stone in 10th has to hurt.

“I talked to Reid a little bit about it and he insisted that we pull the rock,” Dunstone added. “Full props to him. It was a difficult thing to do in that moment and you hate to see something like that cloud over a great game.”

Carruthers was sitting shot stone in the top of the four-foot when skip stones came around, but he was surrounded by a sea of Dunstone rocks.

With his first shot, Dunstone ran a Carruthers guard into the mess of rocks in the house and ended up moving the shot stone back enough to sit three.

Carruthers attempted a hit of his own to try and cut Dunstone down, but he was unable to move his opponent’s rocks enough and Dunstone’s team began to celebrate.

“It was a very strange end,” Dunstone said. “There were a ton of rocks in play and the beauty of the five-rock rule is that you can still have a chance to come back if you are down by two.

“My guys threw our first six rocks into beautiful spots to give us a chance to get the three points to win the game. It all worked out for us in the end.”

While the loss in the final was a tough one for Carruthers to swallow, he was proud of how his team performed with just three players for the entire week.

They are assured of a spot at the Brier, which runs from March 3-12, as one of the three Wild Card squads, but their full lineup is yet to be determined.

“There’s a lot for us to be proud of,” Carruthers said. “We played some absolute burner games here and it was an awesome final.

“I have to tip my hat to Matt and his team. They’ve been playing well all year and they deserved this.”

After losing an ‘A’ event playoff round qualifier to Braden Calvert’s Fort Rouge squad on Saturday morning, Dunstone qualified for the Page playoff with a 7-1 triumph over clubmate Ryan Wiebe.

Once they reached the final four, they beat Brandon’s Steve Irwin 8-2 in the 2 vs. 2 matchup on Saturday night and got revenge on Calvert by a score of 8-4 in the semifinal on Sunday morning.

“It was a sink or swim situation and we played our best curling after that first loss,” Dunstone said. “We had no choice but to light a fire under ourselves if we were going to win it.”

For Calvert, the third-place finish was the best result for the Carberry product at the Viterra. He placed fourth with his junior rink at the 2015 event in Brandon.

However, he felt like his team let things slip away a little bit.

They gave up a steal of three against Carruthers in the ninth end of a 7-4 setback in Saturday’s 1 vs. 1 Page playoff game and saw Dunstone score three points in the sixth end and steal two in the seventh to break open a 3-3 semifinal.

“We played well all week here and we’re happy about being in the mix, but we just fell a little bit short, so that’s disappointing,” said Calvert, who is joined on his rink by third Kyle Kurz, second Ian McMillan and lead Rob Gordon.

Irwin was also left wondering what could have been.

He held a 7-1 lead after four ends over Carruthers in an ‘A’ playoff round final but ended up losing by a score of 10-8.

The Brandon squad, which includes third Travis Taylor, second Travis Brooks and lead Travis Saban, rebounded with a 9-8 extra end triumph over Corey Chambers’ Fort Garry side to reach the final four for the first time since 2018.

“The fact that we had a chance to play on Sunday in our grasp and not have that happen was hard to take,” Irwin said. “However, our goal was to make the final eight and we were able to turn that into a final four spot.

“Once you get to that point, you never know what can happen.”

EXTRA ENDS: The Dunstone rink is the first to win the Viterra out of the 2 vs. 2 Page playoff since Rob Fowler’s Brandon side in 2012 … Kevin Koe (Alberta) and Scott Jones (New Brunswick) also clinched their spots in the Brier field on Sunday. Brendan Bottcher will join Carruthers as a Wild Card team, with the third spot going to either Karsten Sturmay or Aaron Sluchinski of Alberta. An official announcement on the field and the two nine-team pools is expected by Curling Canada in the coming days.

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