Jason Gunnlaugson of Winnipeg, the skip of the 2020 Manitoba provincial men’s curling champion team, has made a change to his roster for the 2020-21 curling season. Gunnlaugson announced on Thursday that his third Alex Forrest of Winnipeg would be stepping back from high level curling because of family reasons. On Monday, Gunnlaugson announced Forrest’s replacement would be Matt Wozniak of Winnipeg according to Ted Wyman of the Winnipeg Sun.
With the addition of Wozniak, import Adam Casey of Seven Mile Bay, Prince Edward Island is moving from second to third. Connor Njegovan, who has been curling on the same team as Gunnlaugson since 2017, will remain the lead.
Wozniak was the long time second for Mike McEwen (2009 to 2018). Together they won the Manitoba Provincial Curling Championship in 2016 and 2017. Wozniak took a step back from high performance curling in 2018. In the last two years he had a child with his girlfriend, Marlene Albrecht, who was the lead for Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni.
Meanwhile on the women’s side, Kelsey Rocque of Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta has announced a change to her front end. The two-time Alberta provincial finalist has added Dana Ferguson as her second and Rachelle Brown as her lead according to TSN. Ferguson and Brown have appeared in four Scotties Tournament of Hearts each as front end players for skips Valerie Sweeting and Chelsea Carey. They were also part of the Alberta team that won the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts with Carey.
Ferguson and Brown replace second Becca Konschuh and lead Jesse Iles on Team Rocque. Danielle Schmiemann will remain as Rocque’s third.
