For the second time in as many years, Brad Gushue and his St. John’s rink made it to the final of the Grand Slam of Curling’s season-opening event, but unlike 2018, they didn’t come away with a title.
Gushue, Mark Nichols, Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker lost 8-5 to the Regina rink skipped by Matt Dunstone in Sunday’s men’s championship final of the Masters in North Bay, Ont.
Gushue led 2-1 through two ends, but Dunstone scored three in the third and maintained the lead to take his first-ever Grand Slam title.
Nichols has 12 GSOC championships to his credit, Gushue has 11 and Gallant and Walker each have 10.
The St. John’s rink’s last Grand Slam win came in September of 2018 at the Elite 10. Between then and this week’s competition, the team had made the playoffs at every GSOC event, but never advanced past the semifinals, getting to the quarter-finals five times and the semis once.
So in that way, Gushue’s showing in North Bay would have to be considered a positive, but there will be disappointment, too, considering the former world champions missed on more than a couple of opportunities to score more points or prevent some from the young Dunstone rink.
That included the very last shot of the game, when Gushue attempted an angle takeout to score two points and force the game into an extra end, but just missed.
The Masters was just the third event of the season for the Gushue rink, which went 2-2 in the preliminary round in North Bay before beating Alberta’s Brendan Bocchter in the quarter-final round and Ontario’s John Epping in semifinal play.
Dunstone went 6-1 overall, with two of the victories coming over Gushue; the 24-year-old Winnipeg native beat the St. John’s veteran 5-4 in the the very first draw of the preliminary round.
