Wozniak jumps at chance to join Jason Gunnlaugson rink

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This article was published 23/03/2020 (2379 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Matt Wozniak will curl with one of Manitoba’s big guns again.

The two-time Manitoba men’s champion has agreed to join Jason Gunnlaugson’s team out of Morris for the 2020-21 season. He’ll play second, while Adam Casey — an import from Charlottetown, P.E.I. — will move up to throw third stones, replacing Alex Forrest, who left the team last week to focus on family and work commitments.

The mini-shakeup comes just over two weeks after Gunnlaugson represented Manitoba at the 2020 Brier national men’s championship in Kingston, Ont.

Gunnlaugson’s crew was ranked eighth in the nation heading into the Brier. They had a sensational start to the Canadian playdowns, going 5-2 in the preliminary round, but lost four straight in the championship pool to miss the Page playoffs.

Wozniak, currently quarantined at home in Winnipeg after spending time in Zurich, Switzerland with his girlfriend, curler Marlene Albrecht, said Monday he jumped at the opportunity to play with Gunnlaugson, Casey and lead Connor Njegovan.

“I’m very excited to join Jason and the boys. They’re progressing at a great rate, they’ve worked their way up the rankings and I’m excited to get back into (men’s play). Good timing, good opportunity, a perfect fit. It’s one of those things where you kind of have to act quickly,” said Wozniak.

“It’s a great dynamic. Jason and Adam seem to have really connected, even though Adam wasn’t throwing third rocks but was in the house. I watched them at the Brier and it looked really seamless. As far as Connor goes, I’ve known him since he was just a little kid and I’ve watched him really develop.” 

Wozniak played on the front end for Mike McEwen for a decade and competed at three consecutive Briers until the team disbanded after the championship in Regina in 2018. Since then, he’s focused on mixed doubles play with Albrecht but is eager to step back into men’s play with one of the nation’s finest foursomes.

“These guys work harder than anybody. I know people say that but it is true. I trained with them, I practised beside them often and these guys are all-in. That’s a perfect situation to be walking into,” he said.

The worldwide COVID-19 outbreak has effectively shut down the competitive season, so the new-look Gunnlaugson team won’t have a chance to start building chemistry until August. Accumulating Canadian Team Ranking System points and qualifying for direct entry to the Olympics Trials in late 2021 remains the major goal.

Apart from possessing an arsenal of shots, Wozniak also comes with some intangibles, said Gunnlaugson.

“It’s great that he’s won before and that’s a massive thing, especially in trying to defend the Manitoba championship. But he’s also a really easy person to play with and I could tell that over the years, playing with him when we were young and watching him (with McEwen). He also spared for us (at an event) in Phoenix two years ago, and saw how good he was and also how good of a team player he is,” Gunnlaugson said.

“That’s something we were looking for. Losing Alex, a real glue guy, we knew we had to replace him with somebody with that kind of mentality.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell