‘We’d love to keep that gold in Canada’

For the first time in 31 years, Manitoba rinks have won both the Scotties and the Brier in the same year.

Gimli’s Kerri Einarson captured the women’s national crown last month in Mississauga, Ont., meanwhile Winnipeg’s Matt Dunstone took care of business on Sunday in St. John’s, N.L., to win his first men’s title.

Connie Laliberte and Kerry Burtnyk accomplished the last Manitoba sweep back in 1995.

“To see them finally come out on top at the Brier was just so awesome to see,” said Team Einarson second Shannon Birchard in a video call with reporters on Monday.

“We got a lot of Manitoba pride and we know there’s lots of talent here in the province so to have us both on top this year is pretty cool.”

While this may be new for Dunstone, it’s been a familiar sight over the years to see Einarson, Birchard and third Val Sweeting climb to the top of the Canadian curling mountain. The upcoming World Women’s Curling Championship in Calgary (March 14-22) will be their fourth appearance at the event.

“I think the biggest thing is to try to not put so much pressure on ourselves. We headed into those past worlds and it felt like the weight of the world on our shoulders at times,” said Birchard.

“I think we just need to come in with a lot of confidence and know that we can lean on our experience this coming week.”

Lead Karlee Burgess — who joined the team midway through the 2024-25 campaign — will be making her worlds debut.

She’ll be one of the many fresh faces in the 13-team field with Xenia Schwaller (Switzerland), Isabella Wrana (Sweden), Delaney Strouse (United States), Fay Henderson (Scotland), Torild Bjoernstad (Norway) and Helen Williams (Australia) also being first timers.

There’s also a list of regulars to watch out for in Stefania Constantini (Italy), Fujisawa Satsuki (Japan), Wang Rui (China), and Gim Eun-ji (Korea). Olympic champion Anna Hasselborg of Sweden and silver medalist Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland will not be in Calgary.

“We’re one of the oldest teams in the field, which is kind of strange to say. A bit of a new guard coming in with some of the teams,” said Birchard.

The last time the world championship was held in Calgary was 2021 when it was played in a bubble without fans owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Einarson missed out on the podium that time, but rebounded to win bronze in 2022 (Prince George, B.C.) and again in 2023 (Sandviken, Sweden).

Einarson is no stranger to everything that comes with representing the Maple Leaf on Canadian soil.

“Yeah, that Maple Leaf can be heavy, that’s for sure. We always thought the Buffalo was heavy, but the Maple Leaf is even heavier. You try to not put so much pressure on yourself or even think about that, but it’s hard,” said Einarson.

“We’ve got to be out there for ourselves and teammates, and not so much everything else. That’s what makes us perform well. At the end of the day, I’m still Kerri Einarson and going out there to play a game that I love.”

Canada is the reigning, back-to-back champions with Ottawa’s Rachel Homan bringing home gold the last two years.

“Team Homan has really set the bar there the last couple of times,” Sweeting said. “We’d love to keep that gold in Canada.”

If Einarson, a five-time Scotties champion, can keep the streak going, it would be a huge boost to what is already a Hall of Fame resumé.

“That’s definitely what we want to do. I love this team, we’ve done so much over the years, we’ve been through so much with each other and it would definitely mean the world to us,” said Einarson.

Einarson, Sweeting and Birchard have played the last eight seasons together — a rarity in today’s curling landscape. With this being the end of the quad, you never know what’s going to happen after the week in Calgary.

“I haven’t allowed myself to think about that too much just yet. We just want to focus on this event and see what happens afterwards,” said Einarson.

“It’s difficult when you still have worlds left to play and other teams are forming and making changes and stuff. We just kind of got to put that aside for now and just focus on ourselves and what we need to do as a team.”

Einarson and company open the event Saturday at 3 p.m. CT against Sweden.

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