World’s best ready to rock Steinbach

It’s a shame how rarely Manitoba’s elite curlers get to play in their home province.

Gimli’s Kerri Einarson hasn’t thrown a competitive rock around these parts since early 2020 when she bested Jennifer Jones in the provincial final in Rivers.

It’s also been far too long for Winnipeggers Mike McEwen (2022 provincials in Selkirk) and Matt Dunstone (2023 provincials in Neepawa) who have gotten used to travelling coast-to-coast annually without playing in the Keystone Province.

The good news is the drought ends this week with Steinbach hosting the Grand Slam of Curling’s (GSOC) Crown Royal Players’ Championship inside the Southeast Event Centre. The action kicks off Tuesday and runs through Sunday featuring the top 12 men’s and top 12 women’s teams in the world battling it out for a combined prize purse of $480,000.

“It’s quite crazy to think it’s been that long since we played in Manitoba,” Einarson, who’s gotten to skip provincials in recent years by pre-qualifying for nationals, told the Free Press on Monday.

“I haven’t played a Slam event in Manitoba yet… So, we’re super excited and a lot of my family and friends are coming out. It’ll be nice to be a home-crowd favourite.”

You have to go all the way back to the 2014 Masters in Selkirk to find the last time a GSOC event with both men’s and women’s talent took place here.

“My friend and I got tickets for it, we were sitting behind the sheet,” recalled Einarson.

“It was lots of fun and a great experience. Val (Sweeting, now Einarson’s third) ended up winning it that year. She had Cathy Overton-Clapham sparing for her. It was pretty cool.”

The GSOC returned in 2018 with the men’s Elite 10 tournament in Winnipeg at the St. James Civic Centre where McEwen defeated Brad Gushue in the final. It was the last time McEwen, who now curls out of Saskatchewan, won a Slam.

“I 100 per cent believe Steinbach is going to be a great success,” said McEwen.

“Obviously, with the beautiful new arena and all that going for the community, but also just thinking back to, I think, my very first provincial final was actually in Steinbach against Jeff Stoughton (2010), but I have some great memories of that community supporting curling events quite well. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Slam comes back to Manitoba on a regular occurrence, especially if Steinbach does the job that I think it will do.”

McEwen is turning to an old friend this week to try to recapture some magic. Second Kevin Marsh is staying home with his wife who is expecting, so McEwen called up BJ Neufeld — his teammate from 2007-2018 — to fill in.

McEwen, Neufeld, Colton Flasch and Dan Marsh spent several hours on the ice together on Monday to get everyone on the same page.

Flasch is also familiar with Neufeld as they won the 2019 Brier together with Kevin Koe.

“This is definitely the right decision and easiest pickup for us to insert in the lineup and just have it feel good right away,” said McEwen.

“I’m getting great feelings thinking about playing in Steinbach with BJ. Who knows how things will go. Maybe we’ll catch lightning in a bottle this week.”

Meanwhile, Dunstone’s been busy trying to get enough tickets for family and friends so they can watch him up close and in person. For some, it’ll be their first time doing so.

“I know how much time and effort goes into running these events and how much volunteer and manpower you need to be able to pull these types of events off and it’s awesome that it’s finally happened. It gave me a great excuse to come in a little bit early to celebrate Christmas and new year’s with my family as well,” said Dunstone, who now lives in Kamloops, B.C.

Dunstone, third Colton Lott, second E.J. Harnden, and lead Ryan Harnden came up short against Brad Jacobs in the final of the Canadian Curling Trials in Halifax in November. They followed that up with a poor showing in Saskatoon where they went 0-4 at the Canadian Open (Dec. 16-21).

Team Dunstone will try to bounce back this week to gain some momentum heading into the Brier in St. John’s, N.L. (Feb. 27-March 8). Same for Einarson, who will wear Team Canada colours at the Scotties later this month (Jan. 23-Feb. 1) since Rachel Homan will be in Italy for the Olympics.

This is also the final tune-up for the seven men’s teams and six women’s teams in Steinbach that are headed to the Olympics.

“We want to get back to the form that this team is used to and the form that everyone else is used to seeing us at,” said Dunstone.

“And then, obviously, with us being the home team here, there’s an added incentive to it.”

Einarson opens against Korea’s Eun-ji Gim Tuesday at 3 p.m. Dunstone and McEwen square off in the late draw at 6:30 p.m.

Now that he waves the flag for Saskatchewan, will McEwen still feel the love from the stands?

“Hold on, hold on. I got just as many Manitobans on my team as he does,” laughed McEwen. “Two versus two, and both back end players, so maybe it’ll be a split crowd. That’s the best I can hope for.”

Care to respond, Dunstone?

“We’re excited to find out who the crowd is pulling for this week,” said Dunstone with a chuckle. “But hopefully the crowd just remembers who’s represented Manitoba at the last three Briers.”

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