‘It’s been a long time coming’

You don’t have to remind Matt Dunstone how long his Grand Slam drought was.

“It was five years and 11 months,” said the skip in a chat with the Free Press on Monday.

“So, it’s been a long time coming, for sure.”

Dunstone managed to get the monkey off his back Sunday in London, Ont., with his Winnipeg-based team — third Colton Lott, second E.J. Harnden, and lead Ryan Harnden — by outlasting Scotland’s Ross Whyte 6-4 in extra ends to capture the AMJ Masters title.

On the women’s side, Rachel Homan continued her dominance by winning a record-extending 18th Grand Slam event by knocking off Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni in the final.

“It’s one of your main goals, and to be able to finally break through and do that is a crazy good feeling,” said Lott. “There’s lots of excitement because we know our potential and it’s nice to be able to finally do that. There’ll be a lot more in the future.”

It’s an important year to start strong as the event that every competitive team in the country builds towards — the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials (Nov. 22-30) in Halifax — is less than two months away. As a two-time Brier finalist (2023 and 2025) in this quadrennial, Dunstone and company will certainly be pegged as one of the favourites.

“I’d way sooner be in a position where the expectation is to go and win, versus the unknown of being not sure if you have what it takes or not,” said Dunstone. “We have full closure that we have exactly what it takes to win. The expectation of that is very exciting because there are a lot of teams that don’t have that expectation. I look at it as a bit of a privilege to be able to say we’re for sure one of the teams that has what it takes to be Team Canada at the Olympics.”

Last year Dunstone stumbled out of the gates. They were bounced in the quarterfinals at the AMJ Masters before getting upset by fellow Manitoban Jordon McDonald in the first round at the PointsBet Invitational.

After going 1-4 at the KIOTI National in late November, Dunstone made a major move by releasing then-third B.J. Neufeld and bringing in E.J. Harnden who was available after he was let go by Brad Gushue. Lott bumped over to third, and E.J. — Ryan’s older brother — slid in at second and the unit responded by making it to three semifinals, a final (the Brier where they came up short against Brad Jacobs), and a first-place showing at the Astec Safety Challenge to finish as one of the hottest teams in the world in the second half.

“It feels like you have two sets of brothers on the team that have come together,” said Dunstone.

“The talent and the shot making amongst the top teams in the world is so minute that your gains are found in team dynamics, team culture, consistency, those types of things and that’s an advantage that we have — the closeness of the group.”

It’s been a natural fit at third for Lott as Dunstone raves about what the Gimli product has brought to the position. Lott, 30, and his wife Kadriana are the back-to-back Canadian mixed doubles champions.

“In my opinion, he’s the most talented player in the country. There are not many thirds in our game that can completely take over games and he’s one of them,” said Dunstone, also 30.

“When he’s out there making shots and flying around, that’s something this team feeds off of. It’s been a lot of fun over the last handful of years to watch him really come into his own and become the top player in the country.”

Top player in the country?

“I can easily say that with a lot of confidence, yes. Watch the game film for 30 minutes then you’ll come back and agree with me,” said Dunstone.

“He makes shots that other people can’t, and a lot more consistently. The way he throws hardweight takeouts with that much precision are huge momentum swings due to those types of shots that are in his toolbox.”

Team Dunstone has already pre-qualified for this year’s Brier (Feb. 27-March 8 in St. John’s, N.L.) based on Canadian Team Ranking System points. Before they gear up for the trials and nationals, they’ll try to keep the good times rolling this week when the PointsBet Invitational kicks off Wednesday in Calgary.

The invitational is no longer a single-game knockout tournament. It’s been changed to a traditional round-robin format with two five-team pools in both men’s and women’s action. The winning teams in each pool will meet in the championship game on Sunday for a $35,000 prize.

“We’ve got all the confidence here. We’re all playing well, and we all have our goals moving forward,” said Lott.

“This year is about fine-tuning everything and not putting an extra amount of pressure on ourselves. We want to go into every game, every shot and take it one at a time and build everything up to the trials.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca