ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Matt Dunstone dropped to his knees on the pebbled ice as tears filled his eyes and he pumped both fists and said, “Oh my god,” while more than 6,000 fans, most of whom were on their feet, celebrated the moment right along with him.
Then in came a sliding E.J. Harnden, the veteran second who celebrated the moment as fast as he possibly could, wrapping Dunstone in a hug.
Dunstone and his Team Manitoba have done it. On the Winnipeg skipper's third trip to the Brier final, the 30-year-old Dunstone earned his first national championship title with a definitive 6-3 victory over Kevin Koe and his Team Alberta, who were undefeated up until the final.
For Dunstone, runner up at the 2023 and 2025 Brier and Canada’s Olympic Trials this past November, it’s an enormous breakthrough. Losses in those finals led the skip to tears, but on Sunday night in St. John’s, those tears were at last happy, as Dunstone, third Colton Lott and brothers E.J. and Ryan Harnden won their first Brier as a team.
“I don’t know what that feels like until now — man, it’s the best,” Dunstone said of the happy tears he was still crying. “This moment feels way more incredible than I ever would have imagined.”
The game in front of a sold-out crowd at Mary Brown’s Centre was a close one that saw both skips curling in the 90th percentile through the first half, and it was a question of who’d make a small mistake first. That came in the seventh end when Koe missed a runback hit with his first, and Dunstone told his teammates: “It’s time to dance.”
Did the skipper ever dance, executing a beautiful soft tap to score three for a 4-2 lead.
“I picked a bad spot to miss, and it cost us,” said Koe, the four-time national champion, not long after his ninth career Brier final.
Koe isn’t sure what his future holds, and the 51-year-old said he and teammates Tyler Tardi, Aaron Sluchinski and Karrick Martin hadn't yet talked about what’s to come next just yet.
“Obviously I can still play good enough to play in a Brier final, so that’s pretty good and we’ll see,” Koe said.
E.J. Harnden, meanwhile, is set to retire at the end of this season, but the now four-time Brier winner will see his career extended since the win at nationals means his team will represent Canada at world championships, which open later this month in Utah.
“I’m not done yet!” a grinning and laughing E.J. Harnden said of a win that he described as “everything,” as he looked up at the arena’s ceiling in disbelief.
“This being my last Brier and to win it, that was the goal, but to actually do it and realize how hard it is to win a Brier, this is incredible,” he added, smiling ear-to-ear. “I couldn’t be happier. I couldn’t be happier for Matt and Colton and Ryan. It’s been 13 years for Ryan (since he won his first), first Brier for Colton, Matt. I said I really wanted to be a part of that, and now I am. This is phenomenal.”
Dunstone pointed out that after the heartbreak at Trials, his team focused on being ready to win the Brier, knowing it could be their last event as a foursome, with E.J. retiring. “Holy s---!” the skip said with a laugh, since they’d just accomplished exactly that, and lifted the Tankard together.
“There’s no words that can describe this feeling,” added a grinning Lott. “Being so close last year and then in 2023, we felt that heartbreak. And we know that that’s always a possibility. And to actually be on the winning side of it, it’s just a phenomenal feeling.”
And to do it with Dunstone, who he’s been curling with since juniors, who Lott calls “my brother on the ice, off the ice.”
On the ice Sunday night, Dunstone made the shot of the game in nine, when he basically put it away, connecting on a clutch double for a deuce that saw him kick up one knee and pump a fist in the air and scream “yes!” before pumping both fists.
That gave Team Manitoba a 6-3 lead with an end to go in a game that finished that way and saw Dunstone curl a game-high 94 per cent. The team curled a collective 90 per cent, and for E.J. Harnden, the highlight of the win was not only accomplishing this one last time with his brother, who he won Olympic gold with back in 2014, but with Lott and Harnden, who he’s certain will win many more titles.
“They brought the love, the curling back to me,” said Harnden, the 42-year-old father of two. “To see them win, they deserve this more than anyone.”
While Dunstone came into this final with what some would’ve seen as a monkey on his back, having lost three big finals with a chance to represent Canada on the line, he said he didn’t feel any of that pressure or weight.
“Absolutely none this time,” as he put it. “The heartbreak that I’ve had, that this group has had over the last three years, the amount that I learned from that, I played free and loose all week. And you know, when you feel the hurt enough times you don’t really get too scared of it when you know what’s at the end of the road.”
It’s not that Dunstone is numb to it, but he understood what it was like to lose a big one, knowing that in a week or so he’d feel better and move onto what’s next, because that’s what he’s had to do in the past.
This time is different, though. This time, Dunstone and Lott and the Harnden brothers, who the skipper calls “the best sweeping duo in the game,” will be moving on with Canada Maple Leafs on their backs, at the world championships.
“I feel very honoured, very blessed to be able to go and represent Canada on the world stage, especially after seeing Team Jacobs go and do what they did, it was very inspirational,” Dunstone said of the Olympic gold medallists, who he beat earlier Sunday in the Brier semifinal. “I feel really fortunate and just can’t wait to do the same.”
Dunstone thought about all the “sad beers” he’d drank after big events with teammates and family, and he couldn’t wait to have “happy beers” and celebrate the win with all of them, and with that well-earned Tankard.
“It was tons of fun. Everything needed to be fun,” Dunstone said, tears still in his eyes, and no doubt more to come in the celebration ahead. “You don’t get these moments too often, and why pass it by?”
