PORTAGE — Reid Carruthers and Kevin Koe spherical out the sphere for the Canadian males’s curling championship after their groups gained their respective provincial finals Sunday. Carruthers defeated Braden Calvert 9-7 in Portage la Prairie, Man.
PORTAGE — Reid Carruthers and Kevin Koe spherical out the sphere for the Canadian males’s curling championship after their groups gained their respective provincial finals Sunday.
Carruthers defeated Braden Calvert 9-7 in Portage la Prairie, Man., and Koe downed Evan Van Amsterdam 9-7 in Stettler, Alta.
The crowning of the Alberta and Manitoba champions accomplished the sphere of 18 groups curling Feb. 28 to March 9 within the Montana’s Brier in Kelowna, B.C.
The victor represents Canada on the males’s world championship March 29 to April 6 in Moose Jaw, Sask.
Different groups already Brier-bound embrace Cameron de Jong (B.C.), Rylan Kleiter (Saskatchewan), Sam Mooiebroek (Ontario), John Epping (Northern Ontario), Tyler Smith (Prince Edward Island), Ty Di Lello (Newfoundland and Labrador), Owen Purcell (Nova Scotia), Thomas Scoffin (Yukon), Felix Asselin (Quebec), Shane Latimer (Nunavut), James Grattan (New Brunswick) and Aaron Bartling (Northwest Territories).
Six-time champion Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., returns as defending champion.
Groups skipped by Brad Jacobs, Mike McEwen and Matt Dunstone pre-qualified for Kelowna primarily based on their rankings on the finish of the 2023-24 season.
Jacobs, a Canadian, world and Olympic champion, took over as skip of Brendan Bottcher’s Alberta-based crew, that ranked No. 2 in Canada on the finish of final season. Bottcher changed E.J. Harnden as Gushue’s second in October.
The winner in Kelowna can declare a berth in November’s Olympic trials so long as that crew ranks within the high six on the world championship.
Gushue and Jacobs are already certain for trials.
Ought to Gushue or Jacobs prevail in Kelowna, the trials berth goes to the best ranked crew on the conclusion of the 2024-25 season after the Gamers’ Championship in April.
Carruthers will make his twelfth look on the Brier. He stole two within the first finish and scored 4 within the fourth for a 6-1 lead over Calvert on Sunday.
Calvert countered with deuces within the fifth, seventh and ninth ends, however trailed by one coming house with out hammer. He missed a double hit along with his last stone of the tenth.
4-time nationwide and two-time world champion Koe will skip a crew within the Brier for the thirteenth time in his profession. He missed the playoffs for simply the second time final 12 months in Regina.
His crew scored deuces within the first, third and fifth ends, stole some extent within the sixth and notched one other deuce within the ninth Sunday to guide 9-5 coming house and ran Van Amsterdam out of rocks.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Feb. 9, 2025.
The Canadian Press
