It’s do or die for Dunstone

HALIFAX — It wasn’t always pretty, but it was certainly entertaining.

There were plenty of haymakers thrown and more than a few uncharacteristic mistakes, but when the dust settled on 10 memorable ends, it was Brad Jacobs who prevailed 9-8 over Winnipeg’s Matt Dunstone to claim Game 1 of the best-of-three series to decide the Canadian Curling Trials champion.

“There’s a lot of weird things that happen in big events, especially at the Olympic trials, and we were witness to that tonight,” said Jacobs.

Dunstone took an early beating but fought back to score a pair in the ninth to take an 8-7 advantage into the final frame. Four misses on five shots at the end handed the contest to Jacobs who didn’t have to throw his last stone.

The 2014 Olympic gold medallist from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is now one win away from once again wearing the Maple Leaf on the biggest stage in curling.

Jacobs wasn’t exactly jubilant after. His thoughts were with Team Dunstone — a foursome his cousins E.J. and Ryan Harnden play for.

“Truthfully, I feel for Matt and that team after that miss. I truly do. None of you may believe me, but I do,” said Jacobs.

“Yeah, I know that it’s competition and I know that we want to win. But my cousins are on that team. They’re my family, I love them. I was expecting to have to make my last one to win that game. That’s what I was thinking. Yeah, is that a huge break? For sure. Will we take it? Absolutely. But I’m allowed to feel bad for my family.”

The 40-year-old Jacobs, who won his second career Brier last year, isn’t letting what’s at stake get to him.

“I really felt like winning that second Brier for me has completed the curling journey for me. I really have. It’s allowed me to just play free and play loose,” said Jacobs.

“It’s interesting because I remember in the past, in big games like that, I’d be full of nerves, very anxious, just wanting to win so badly and it affected the way that I played. And now, this is going to sound maybe bad, but I’ve kind of reached a point in my career where I just don’t care. But I mean that in a very good way. So, yeah, looking forward to another game. I mean, anything can happen out there as we’ve kind of seen.”

Unlike Jacobs, Dunstone — who is ranked No. 2 in the world behind Scotland’s Bruce Mouat — is still searching for that first career-altering win. The road to making that happen will be even tougher now that he must outlast Jacobs twice in two days.

Dunstone curled at 78 per cent, and Jacobs was a hair better at 79 per cent.

“(The game) was very adventurous. It was a very tricky surface to navigate,” said Dunstone.

“You don’t see a line score (like that) and the amount of misses that you see without, you know, it’s just obvious that’s the way it was. But I mean, that’s why it’s a best-of-three. So, we gotta come out tomorrow.”

The ice has been a topic of conversation throughout the entire event. A pressure relief valve failed in the dehumidification unit for the arena last weekend and had to be replaced. The system has had difficulty keeping up with the demand, plus the humidity and the warmer than usual weather at this time of year has made the job of Greg Ewasko, the ice technician, extremely challenging.

“Greg’s the best in the world, man. He’s been dealt a really tough hand this week and I want that to be known,” said Dunstone.

“There’s nobody else that I’d rather have here than him. He’s the best in the business.”

Team Jacobs lead Ben Hebert also weighed in on the playing conditions.

“The ice is good, it’s just a little bit inconsistent. Sometimes it’s fast, sometimes it’s slow, and it’s a little tough. It makes it more interesting for the fans so I’m sure you guys enjoyed it more than we did.”

It looked like Jacobs was going to run away with things after scoring a deuce in the fourth to go up 5-2. Then disaster struck in the fifth when a failed runback attempt opened the door for Dunstone to hit a draw to score four to take a 6-5 lead at the half.

It was the first time this event that Jacobs had allowed three or more points in an end.

“We’re resilient. We’re very hard to put away. We’re a great team from behind as you saw,” said Dunstone.

“We don’t love to be in those scenarios, but that was the hand that we were dealt. We battled and made a really good game of it, obviously.”

Jacobs came out of the break swinging with another double in the sixth to get back in front at 7-6. Dunstone blanked back-to-back ends with the hammer before scoring two to set up a must-see10th end.

“This thing is far from over,” said Hebert.

Game 2 goes down today at 5 p.m. CT.

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