The winner of the semifinal will face Alberta’s Kevin Koe in the final on Sunday night
When the final day of the 2026 Montana’s Brier gets underway on Sunday, all three curlers from Sault Ste. Marie at the event will be in action.
With three teams remaining in the 18-team field, Sunday will see Sault Ste. Marie’s Brad Jacobs looking to book a spot in the tournament final with a semifinal win.
The catch is that he’ll be facing a pair of former teammates and Saultites for that chance.
After booking a spot in Saturday’s 3v4 Page playoff game with a win Saturday night over Manitoba’s Braden Calvert, Jacobs took on the hometown team in Saturday’s game.
Facing Brad Gushue on Saturday afternoon, the Jacobs rink picked up a 7-5 win to advance.
The result also meant that it was the final game in competitive men’s curling for Gushue, who announced earlier on that this season would be his last.
With the game tied at two, Jacobs scored three in the sixth end to take a 5-2 lead and, after Gushue scored a pair in the seventh to make it a 5-4 game, Jacobs scored singles in the eighth and 10th ends to cap off the win, holding Gushue to a single in the ninth.
“That was our best team game of the week,” Jacobs said in media availability provided by Curling Canada. “It was nice to see the Team Jacobs that we know show up today and play a great game. We were really in control of that game right from the beginning.”
Gushue spoke highly of the Jacobs rink, which includes third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant, and lead Ben Hebert.
“They didn’t really give us a sniff in that game,” Gushue said. “We never had a chance for an extra point early, so it felt that way. They performed really well. They played great. They’re going to be tough to beat going forward if they continue with that mojo that they had in that game.”
In Saturday’s 1v2 Page playoff game, Alberta’s Kevin Koe beat Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone 9-7 in an extra end to book a spot in the tournament final on Sunday evening.
“We battled,” Dunstone said. “We were up against it all game. We just missed a shot to win by a centimeter.”
The loss means that the Dunstone rink – which includes Sault Ste. Marie’s E.J. Harnden at second and Ryan Harnden at lead along with third Colton Lott – will face Jacobs in Sunday afternoon’s semifinal game.
Dunstone said his team was excited to get a chance to play Jacobs for the other spot in the final.
“Looking forward to having a crack at the Olympic champs,” Dunstone said.
The winner of Sunday night’s title game will represent Canada at the World Men’s Curling Championship later this month in Utah.
