Manitoba curlers ready to rock

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/09/2022 (1314 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After an off-season of some of the biggest names in Canadian curling changing teams, the beginning of a new quadrennial is officially here.

Most of the recognizeable teams, especially here in Manitoba, look different, but one remains the same: the reigning three-time Scotties Tournament of Heart champions.

While everyone else is handing out name tags, Gimli Curling Club’s Kerri Einarson, third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard, and lead Briane Harris (nee Meilleur) are heading into Year 5.

“A lot of other teams are going to be working out a lot of kinks and getting to know each other,” Einarson recently told the Free Press.

“For us, we’ve been together for the last four years and we know a lot of our tendencies… We will definitely have a target on our back this season, like we have the last couple of seasons, so, we know what that feels like. We just gotta keep focusing on us and not worry about anything else around us.”

It’s a little easier to not worry when you have a trip to this year’s Scotties as Team Canada already guaranteed, but that doesn’t mean Einarson won’t be paying attention to what’s happening around these parts. The women’s curling scene in the Keystone Province is loaded with Jennifer Jones, Kaitlyn Lawes, and Chelsea Carey all vying to wear the buffalo jacket in February in Kamloops, B.C.

Jones and Lawes have gone their seperate ways after 12 incredible seasons together, capped off by representing Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Jones, 48, joined forces with one of the most promising young curlers in the country in 23-year-old Mackenzie Zacharias of Altona. Jones is now skipping the 2020 World Junior Curling champions and they’re already off to a good start as the they went 8-0 at the Saville Shoot-Out in Edmonton on the weekend and beat Rachel Homan in the final.

Lawes and former Team Jones second Jocelyn Peterman teamed up with third Selena Njegovan and lead Kristin MacCuish who spent the past four seasons with Tracy Fleury.

And then there’s Carey, who’s throwing her hat into Manitoba’s ring for the first time since 2014. Carey, who hails from Winnipeg but now resides in Calgary, competed in Alberta from 2014-2020 before skipping the Saskatchewan-based rink of Jolene Campbell, Stephanie Schmidt, Jennifer Armstrong, and Rachel Erickson last season. Carey, a two-time Scotties champion, most recently in 2019, is sticking with Campbell and Erickson while adding Fleury’s former second, Liz Fye. Erickson was born in Brandon, giving the foursome eligibility to play out of Manitoba.

“I think it’s the toughest province in Canada by a fair margin at the moment. When I left Manitoba and moved to Alberta, Alberta was maybe a little bit tougher, or certainly close. Everyone told me I was crazy for moving to the only province that might be harder than my own. And my answer then is the same as now in that I’m not looking to go to the Scotties, the goal isn’t just to get there. The goal is to have a chance to win,” Carey said in a phone interview.

“For me, it’s about putting together the right team with the right people and then you figure it out. Yeah, it’s tougher, it’ll be an absolute battle in Manitoba, but the goal is to have the right people in place, so you figure the other part out as you go.”

One of the first big tests of the season takes place next week in Fredericton, N.B., (Sept. 21-25) for the PointsBet September Madness Invitational. Unlike your typical bonspiel, the PointsBet Invitational is a single elimination bracket with 32 Canadian teams, 16 women’s and 16 men’s, battling it out over an event purse of $350,000. The two winning teams will bring home $50,000.

It’s the first major event of the season on the calendar for most.

Manitoba’s fingerprints will be all over it as four of the top five seeds in the women’s bracket are Einarson, Lawes, Carey and Jones.

“Nobody in curling that I’m aware of has ever played in a single elimination event. It’s never existed before to my knowledge,” said Carey.

“That one is a crapshoot, for a lack of a better word… It’s going to be interesting, it’s going to be fun to be a part of, but I don’t think it’ll be much of an indicator as far as who the best teams are or anything like that just because of the timing and the format.”

Matt Dunstone, Reid Carruthers and Braden Calvert are the men’s teams from Manitoba that are heading to Fredericton. Dunstone is the No. 3-seed, while fifth-ranked Carruthers will meet No. 12-seed Calvert in the opening round.

After back-to-back third-place finishes at the Brier as Saskatchewan’s representative, Dunstone is back competing in his home province. The Winnipegger, who now lives in Kamloops, put together a stacked roster featuring third B.J. Neufeld, second Colton Lott and lead Ryan Harnden.

Carruthers is also dangerous as he reunited with his old friend and 2020 Viterra champion, Jason Gunnlaugson. Their team is rounded out with Derek Samagalski at second and Connor Njegovan playing lead. They lost the final of the Curling Stadium Alberta Curling Series Major in Leduc, Alta., to Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller on Monday.

Mike McEwen threw the final stones for Carruthers and Samagalski in the last quad, but the Brandon native now plays out of Ontario with Ryan Fry, Jonathan Beuk, and Brent Laing. After playing lead for McEwen and Carruthers, Colin Hodgson took his talents to Northern Ontario to team with Tanner Horgan.

Throw in Ryan Wiebe’s up and coming team, a group that eliminated Gunnlaugson before losing 10-9 to McEwen in the semi-final at last year’s provincials in Selkirk, and the 2023 Viterra Men’s Manitoba Provincials in Neepawa in February has all the makings of being a slugfest.

But with this season being the first of a new Olympic cycle, it’s all about looking at the big picture.

“The most important thing is to set yourself up good for years two, three, and four because those years are when you can begin to get your Olympic trials spot and set yourself up well to go to the Olympics. So, that’s what this year is going to be used for, to set ourselves up well for (the future),” Dunstone said.

“… This group has all the talent in the world. I’m super excited about that part of it and I’m just really excited for the next four years and see how we all grow together and set ourselves up nicely to hopefully bring back a Brier for Manitoba. It’s been a while for a province that’s used to bringing them in regularly, so, outside of the Olympics, that’s definitely a big goal for this team.”

The latter years of the quad are, of course, important to Einarson as well, but her team has a chance to do something remarkable in the present. If they can go on to win the Scotties yet again, they’d be the first team to win four straight since Colleen Jones’ run from 2001-2004. Einarson is also still searching for a world title as her best finish was a bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships in Prince George, B.C.

“Yeah, we were very excited to get onto the podium. The previous year we didn’t do so well. But that motivates us even more to get ourselves back in that position again,” Einarson said.

“We want an opportunity to potentially bring gold back to Canada . We’re just gonna keep working hard and focus on the small things that we need to work on.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31