Manitoba’s Dunstone, Calvert rinks qualify for Brier playoffs

Six teams have qualified for the playoffs at the Montana’s Brier with two of them being Manitoba squads.

The Matt Dunstone and Braden Calvert rinks wrapped up round-robin action Thursday night with victories. Dunstone’s 6-3 win over Saskatchewan’s Mike McEwen rink moved them to 7-1, good for second place in Pool B.

The path was a little trickier for Calvert’s team as they dropped an extra-end decision to New Brunswick Thursday morning, but bounced back with an 8-4 win over Northern Ontario, finishing with a 5-3 record.

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It put the Calvert team in a three-way tie for the final playoff spot in Pool B, but they were able to win the tiebreaker over McEwen and New Brunswick’s James Grattan.

Dunstone will now play Brad Gushue’s unbeaten Newfoundland/Labrador rink in a 1 vs. 2 Page Playoff Qualifier on Friday morning at 11 a.m.

Calvert’s team will wait to play the loser of one of the 3 vs. 4 Page Qualifier games on Friday night.

The other 1 vs. 2 Qualifier features Kevin Koe’s 8-0 Alberta rink taking on the Olympic gold medallist rink skipped by Brad Jacobs, who went 7-1 a week after their win in Italy at the Winter Olympics.

Jayden King’s Ontario rink was the other team to qualify for the playoffs with a 5.3 record.