Team Dunstone finally gets monkey off its back

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This article was published 29/11/2022 (512 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Matt Dunstone’s new-look team has enjoyed a red-hot start to the season, but there was one problem.

They couldn’t get over the hump and win a final.

Dunstone, third B.J. Neufeld, second Colton Lott and lead Ryan Harnden racked up the victories in their first five events with three second-place finishes and two semi-final appearances, but with no championships to show for it, the group wasn’t satisfied.

“You don’t want to have that rep as a team that can’t finish it off,” Dunstone told the Free Press on Wednesday.

But Dunstone and Co. no longer have to worry about that. On Nov. 21, Dunstone only needed five ends to dismantle Calgary’s Kevin Koe 8-2 in the Prism Flow Red Deer Curling Classic final.

“Obviously, you have to win a bunch of games to get into a final and that part is great. But to go to world championships, to win gold at world championships, to win gold at the Olympics, the Brier, and those sorts of things, you’ve got to win when it matters the most and that’s that final game,” said Dunstone.

“And that was pretty much the only thing this team hadn’t done up to this point up till that event. It’s nice to finally be able to do it. It feels like the monkey is off our back.”

They wish they could’ve won another final or two along the way — especially the Grand Slam of Curling’s Hearing Life Tour Challenge in Grande Prairie, Alta., in October as they lost the championship game to Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson who was handling skip duties for an injured Niklas Edin — but the victory in Red Deer, in addition to their 38-12 record on the year, has made them the No. 1-ranked Canadian men’s team.

Dunstone’s biggest competition in Manitoba, Reid Carruthers, who joined forces with Jason Gunnlaugson, is the fifth-ranked Canadian squad.

“We have ultimate goals for the season and for the cycle of this team, and I don’t know if that was one of the immediate goals, but it’s just a testament to being consistent from event to event. And it’s a testament to our ability to grind out wins when we’re maybe not at our best,” said Neufeld, who spent the past four seasons playing with Koe.

“It used to be, in the mid to later stages when I played with Mike (McEwen), if we didn’t qualify, it was pretty shocking. But now, qualifying at these grand slam events, there’s no easy games and it’s really difficult to qualify. So, to go six-for-six is a great start to the year.”

With this season being the first of a new quadrennial, there’s been a lot of teams going through growing pains. For Dunstone, who played out of Saskatchewan between 2017-22, his homecoming has gone off without a hitch so far.

Up and comers such as himself and Lott pairing with Neufeld and Harnden — the team’s import as he spent the past 14 years playing out of Northern Ontario with Brad Jacobs — has been a perfect fit.

The 27-year-old Dunstone is from Winnipeg but now lives in Kamloops, B.C.

“There’s not a single ego on the team. Guys are totally embracing the roles that they’re in and happy about the roles that they’re in and that’s the biggest part. The off-ice camaraderie comes so much easier when there’s no tension in that sense or guys overstepping their boundaries or maybe under stepping their boundaries because that sort of stuff happens on teams,” said Dunstone.

“But it certainly hasn’t happened in our situation. The full focus for each player is to be the best in the world at their position and that’s awesome.”

Dunstone is one of the younger skips on the circuit, but he’s already cemented himself as one of the best in the game with his play this season, and of course, his bronze medals at the past two Briers.

He’ll get a chance to battle some big names in Morris, Man., this weekend at the DEKALB Superspiel. The spiel features not only some of Manitoba’s top teams in Carruthers, Ryan Wiebe, and Braden Calvert, but also America’s John Shuster and Sweden’s Fredrik Nyman.

“I think curling is getting younger. You look at guys like (Scotland’s) Bruce Mouat and Brendan Bottcher, they’re kind of on the same trajectory and doing some big things at a very young age. Like Bruce Mouat won his first grand slam at 23 years old and I think at that point, he was the youngest skip to ever win a grand slam. I think it’s a great thing for the sport that younger guys are getting better at a much early age,” said Dunstone.

“… At a certain point, I’ll still be playing, and I won’t have to deal with the Gushue’s, Bottcher’s, and Koe’s of the world because they might all be retired when I’m still going. It’s kinda nice to be this young and have so much to look forward to, but it’s a total tribute to who I’ve been able to be around with past and current teammates.”

Dunstone will then play in the GSOC’s Masters in Oakville, Ont., (Dec. 6-11) and Canadian Open in Camrose, Alta., (Jan. 10-15) before playing for the buffalo jacket at the Viterra Championship in Neepawa (Feb. 7-12).

“I think when we made this team, we had visions of winning a Brier here in Year 1,” said Neufeld.

“And I think the start we’ve had and with the way things are going, it gives us a little more belief that we’re definitely capable of doing that here in Year 1.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31