Manitoba remains undefeated at 2023 Tim Hortons Brier

Matt Dunstone (Facebook)

Winnipeg’s Matt Dunstone remains the class of the field at the 2023 Tim Hortons Brier in London, Ontario. On Friday, he won his ninth straight game when he defeated the first Wildcard team skipped by Brendan Bottcher of Edmonton, Alberta 5-3 in one of two seeding games in the championship round.

In the tenth end, Dunstone made a great shot through a small port to pick up three points. With the win, Manitoba advances to the 1-2 game on Saturday night where they will face Canadian Olympic gold medalist Brad Gushue of St. John’s, Newfoundland, who is representing Team Canada at the 2023 Canadian National Men’s Curling Championship as the defending champion. Gushue won the gold medal for Canada at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin.

On Friday, Team Canada defeated Team Ontario 9-3 in a seeding game which saw the Gushue squad dominate the first half of the contest. After five ends, Gushue was up 8-2 thanks to a three ender in the third, and then steals of three in the fourth end, and then another steal of two in the fifth end. Ontario second Brett Laing got extremely discouraged with his shot making. Ontario will play Team Bottcher in the 3-4 game also on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, the two elimination games took place. Ontario beat Alberta 9-8 and the Wildcard team skipped by Bottcher beat Northern Ontario 8-5.

 

 

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