Homan, Jacobs are both one win away from earning an Olympic berth

HALIFAX — Rachel Homan struck a guard with her final stone, and then the world No. 1 skipper and her team could wait and see if it would be enough to keep them out of an Olympic berth.

It was the shot Friday afternoon for Nova Scotia skip Christina Black to score a three with her last to score a major upset, and Black was all smiles as the crowd roared as she rolled down the Scotiabank Center ice before throwing her final stone.

“It was definitely there, but it wasn’t very easy and we had to keep a hope there,” said Team Human Second, Emma Mischow.

Well, that hope worked. The shot came a touchlight to earn the necessary takeout, and Team Homan walked away with a 5-4 victory, now one win away from punching a ticket to the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics in this best-of-three Montana curling trials final.

“We kept it within striking distance and going into the 10th, just hoping we had a chance to score two or three, and we were setting it up pretty well,” Blake said. “But I don’t think my shot was possible until I could throw it a lot. We gave it a good run though.”

Team Black is now 1-7 against Homan, with its lone win coming at the 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, and needs another career win Saturday afternoon for Black to stay alive and force a third and deciding game on Sunday for a chance to represent Canada at the Olympics.

The opener of the men’s final later Friday between Canada’s top two ranked teams Matt Dunstone and Brad Jacobs was another close one, and it was Jacobs who won an error-filled, momentum-shifting shootout 9-8.

“I still don’t know if we won that game,” the skip from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Said, when finished. “It’s about what it feels like.”

Jacobs, third Mark Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Herbert stole two in the second inning to take a 3-0 lead and they built a 5-2 lead in the fifth when the momentum took its first big swing. With Dunstone sitting three, Jacobs missed a runback takeout that saw his shooter spilled, drawing Dunstone at four. Just like that, the Winnipeg skips had their first lead of the game, up 6-5 at the halfway mark.

Mistakes kept happening. As Hebert said: “Entertaining for the fans, mind-numbing for the ice-crawlers.”

In the sixth, Dunstone missed a takeout and his shooter was blown, leaving Jacobs with three in hand. Jacobs then drove to first with a hearty swipe from Colton Lott to home right, giving Dunstone a double takeout, which he nailed. Instead of scoring three or four goals, Team Jacobs had to score Davis and take a 7-6 lead.

Dunstone blanked seven and eight, and then in nine, Jacobs sent a rocket down the ice for a takeout double and just missed it down, leaving Dunstone with an open draw for two and an 8-7 lead heading into the end of the final.

And that’s when the last mistake happened: Jacobs was standing two by hand, and Dunstone’s hit-and-roll attempt completely missed Jacobs’ rock and went straight through the house, a shot Winnipeg’s captain called a “user error.”

Team Dunstone’s front end is EJ and Ryan Harnden, Jacobs’ cousins, and the trio won an Olympic gold medal together in 2014. Jacobs said he felt bad for his team as the game ended.

“I was hoping to win this game and make it my last,” Jacobs said. “That’s what I was thinking. Yeah, is it a big break? Sure. Will we take it? Absolutely. But I’m allowed to feel bad for my family.”

Skip, Kennedy, Gallant and Hebert are now one win away from a berth in the 2026 Olympics, which will require a return trip for all four of them to try and add to their hardware. Gallant, who has already qualified for the 2026 Games in mixed doubles, has a bronze from last winter’s Games along with Brad Gushue. Jacobs won gold in 2014 and Kennedy and Hebert won gold in 2010 with a Kevin Martin skip.

For the women’s team, which is one win away, it will mark a return trip to the big stage for both Homan and Muscov, after making their debut in the women’s team event in 2018. Third Tracy Fleury and lead Sarah Wilkes have never competed in the Olympics before, while Homan, 36, will represent Canada after the winter, making her third appearance at the Mayotte Games in 2022.

“More of the same,” Homan said of what it would take to win another and punch that ticket to his third Olympics. “We’ve been in those situations before and in the final and in the big moments, and we’re out there supporting each other and with each other with every shot, every miss. Just trying to learn and try to get better.”

The five-time Scottish champions and two-time reigning world champions came into the event as the clear team to beat. But Blake and her hometown team of third Jill Brothers, second Jane Baxter and lead Carly Everest nearly managed to pull off an upset despite a slow start that saw Team Homan score three straight singles before the home team got on the board.

“We just gave up those two single-point steals, and you just can’t let them get the lead — they’re too good,” Black said. “So we’ve got to keep the game a little bit closer and just give ourselves a better chance to pull it off.”

Team Black played in the semi-finals the day before and defeated Canada’s second-ranked Kerry Enerson. Blake’s rink seemed to have a better handle on the ice than Tim Homan’s.

“Definitely difficult,” Homan said of the conditions. “It kept changing and it was hard to stay with it, but I thought we stayed very tight. I thought we made a ton of shots and we were as accurate as we could be.”

“We thought when we started the game that the cold was going to stay away, but that wasn’t the case and we definitely struggled a little bit when the ice got in,” added Muscov, who curled 65 percent. “So something to know for tomorrow, and we’ll be a little faster and hopefully it won’t be tight near the end of the game.”

Team Homan is now one win away from the goal it has been working on for a long time.

“It feels great,” Musco said, though she was quick to point out that it’s a one-shot-at-a-time approach, and they’re not getting ahead of themselves.

Team Black, meanwhile, came into this matchup as significant underdogs, ranked 27th in the world. And while they weren’t enough to topple the Human Empire on Friday, another opportunity awaits.

“It’s a must-win game. We felt like today was a must-win game. You know, any time you play them, it’s a must-win game,” Black said.

At the break in the fifth over on Friday, Blake said his team got together for a chat and decided: “Let’s get angry, just don’t lose, just get them angry and see what happens,” as the captain added, smiling.

“So that’s what we did, and we were able to bring it down to the last stone.”