The drive for five: Gushue sets record for Brier titles by a skip

Brad Gushue made some Brier history Sunday.

Gushue won his record fifth Canadian men’s curling championship as a skip when his Team Canada foursome downed Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone 7-5 in the Tim Hortons Brier final in London, Ont.

Gushue entered the tournament tied for the record among skips with Ernie Richardson, Randy Ferbey, Kevin Martin and Kevin Koe with four championships apiece. The veteran skip from St. John’s, N.L., set the record by winning his second straight title.

Third Mark Nichols and lead Geoff Walker also won the fifth Brier titles of their careers. Second E.J. Harnden, who joined the team this season, captured his second Canadian men’s title; he also won in 2013 with Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs.

Dunstone represented Saskatchewan at the 2018, 2020 and 2021 Briers, winning bronze at the latter two championships. He also went to the event as a wild-card team in 2022, but was eliminated by Saskatchewan’s Colton Flasch in a tiebreaker.

Gushue beat Dunstone 5-4 in the 1-2 Page playoff game Saturday night, dropping the Manitoba champions into the semifinal Sunday morning against Brendan Bottcher’s Wild Card #1 team. Dunstone stole two in the 10th end to win that game 7-5, earning a berth in the final and another shot at Gushue.

In the final, after Gushue made a double and rolled out to blank the first end, the teams took turns forcing each other to single points over the next six ends.

Gushue broke through in the eighth with a hit for three and a 6-3 lead, but Dunstone responded with a deuce in the ninth. In the 10th, Gushue had to draw the four-foot facing two Manitoba counters to earn the victory.

Gushue and his rink now will represent Canada at the world men’s curling championship, April 1-9 in Ottawa.