The weekend bracket is set after an eventful day of qualifiers at the Montana’s Brier
Title hopes at the 2026 Montana’s Brier continue for a trio of curlers from the Sault.
For skip Brad Jacobs, it was a second game on Friday that kept his title hopes alive with teammates Marc Kennedy (third), second Brett Gallant., and lead Ben Hebert.
Starting the day in the 1v2 qualifier game, the Jacobs rink dropped a 7-4 decision to Alberta’s Kevin Koe on Friday afternoon.
Trailing 3-2 through six ends, Koe scored three in the seventh end to take the lead before adding a single in the ninth end and sealing the win with a steal of one in the 10th end.
On Friday evening, Jacobs would pick up a 7-3 win over Manitoba’s Braden Calvert in the 3v4 Page playoff qualifier game to move on to Saturday.
“The turning point in that game was when we made the angle raise for two to go up 3-2,” Jacobs said in media availability from Curling Canada. “That just gave us a little bit more energy because we were pretty exhausted at the start of that game. The boys pepped up a little bit after that one and we played pretty good from that point on.”
Dunstone picked up a 7-5 win over Brad Gushue in the other 1v2 qualifier.
Dunstone grabbed the win thanks to a final shot that saw him clear the house of Gushue rocks and sit three for the victory.
The shot came after Gushue was short on his final shot as he tried to throw a guard.
“We were trying to guard the inturn angle raise, which is a pretty easy shot to win the game,” Gushue said of his final shot in media availability provided by Curling Canada. “I tried to make that guard as long as possible to not give him the double raise. I just underthrew it.”
“That side of the sheet was tricky. In the eighth end, we had two picks in that spot, so there was a little bit of action going on that side of the sheet,” Dunstone said. “Just a massive break, obviously.”
With their qualifier wins, Dunstone and Koe will meet on Saturday in the 1v2 Page playoff game with the winner advancing directly into Sunday’s final while the losing team will play in Sunday’s semifinal with a second chance to get into the final.
By way of their wins in Friday’s evening qualifier game, Jacobs and Gushue will face off in the 3v4 Page playoff game on Saturday. The winner of that game will gain the other semifinal game berth.
Capping off a good day for the Dunstone rink on Friday, the Harnden brothers were named second team all-stars at the event while Lott was named a first team all-star.
Additionally, Gallant was also named a first team all-star and Kennedy was named a second team all-star.
