Dunstone’s Saskatchewan team playoff-bound at the Brier

Saskatchewan is off to the playoffs at the Tim Hortons Brier.

Matt Dunstone and his Regina-based team of Braeden Moskowy, Kirk Muyres and Dustin Kidby are to face Brendan Bottcher’s Alberta foursome in Sunday’s semifinal at the Canadian men’s curling championship in Calgary.

The winner will move on to face Kevin Koe’s Wild Card 2 entry in Sunday evening’s final.

Dunstone swept his two games in the championship pool Saturday, beating Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs 5-4 in the afternoon draw and Manitoba’s Jason Gullaugson 9-6 in the evening.

The Saskatchewan team finished play in the championship pool with a 9-3 record and tied Bottcher for second place in the standings. Koe finished atop the table at 10-2.

Team Canada’s Brad Gushue (8-4), the Wild Card 3 squad skipped by Wayne Middaugh (8-4), Jacobs (7-5), Ontario’s John Epping (7-5) and Gunnlaugson (6-6) didn’t qualify for the playoffs.

It appeared tiebreakers were going to be part of the playoff equation, but Saturday’s evening draw cleared up the picture with losses by Gushue, Middaugh and Epping.

In the contest against Jacobs, Dunstone scored two in the seventh end to take a 4-2 lead, but the Northern Ontario representatives replied with a deuce in the eighth end to tie the contest.

Dunstone blanked the ninth and scored one in the 10th for the victory.

Against Manitoba, Saskatchewan scored two in the first end and threes in each of the third and fifth ends to build up an 8-3 lead through five. Gunnlaugson couldn’t recover and conceded after eight.

Saskatchewan hasn’t won a Brier title since Rick Folk won the Canadian championship in 1980. Dunstone finished third at the 2020 event.