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HALIFAX – Twelve years after he won Olympic gold, Brad Jacobs is headed back to the capital games, this time leading a veteran Alberta squad making return trips to the biggest stage.
On Saturday night, Jacobs, third Mark Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert cruised to an eighth straight win to punch a ticket to Milano Cortina 2026 at the Canadian Curling Trials in Montana.
World No. 3, Tim Jacobs swept Canadian top-ranked Matt Dunstone in two straight games in the best-of-three final series, the latest 6-5 victory that went down to the final shot in front of a packed crowd at the Scotiabank Centre.
This showdown between the top two teams in the country was all but tied until the seventh end, when Jacobs scored a double takeout with his last to take a 5-3 lead. Captain from Sault Ste. Murray followed that up with another double takeout in the eighth to make it three, forcing Dunstone to single.
In the ninth, Dunstone made a perfect takedown with his last two sets, and Jacobs gave up a single to lead off the final out of the homer, tying the game at 5-5.
In that final stretch, Jacobs was forced to win and win the stick, and he held on to it. The 40-year-old then threw his flag on the ice before hugging all his teammates and threw both hands in the air as he looked on from the crowd.
Milano Cortina will be the second Olympic experience for Jacobs, who won gold in 2014. It would be Kennedy’s fourth and Hebert’s third. Both left Kevin Martin in 2010 and returned with Kevin Coy in 2018. Kennedy was also an alternate on the Brad Gusho team that won bronze four years ago, along with Gillette at the front end. Gallant had already punched his ticket to Milano-Cretina: he is also competing in mixed doubles with his wife, Jocelyn Peterman.
After missing the round-robin opener Kevin Koe, Team Jacobs was perfect. For Dunstone, the world No. 2 team that has reached every Grand Slam final this season and came in as favorites, it is the first time they have won three straight games this season, winning their round-robin final and the first two of the finals series.
The team came together after Jacobs’ 2024 Grand Slam season with that goal in mind, and the win here comes four years after Jacobs beat Brad Gusho by a point in the final of the Trials.
