McEwen and Kleiter Teams in Same Montana’s Brier Pool

Both Saskatchewan teams will be in Pool B for round-robin play when the Montana’s Brier opens February 28 in Kelowna.

The Saskatoon foursomes skipped by Mike McEwen and Rylan Kleiter are seeded third and sixth, respectively, for the 18-team Canadian men’s championship. The teams are split into two pools of nine teams each for round-robin play with the top three quartets from each pool advancing to playoffs. Joining the two Saskie squads are Brad Jacobs’ team from Calgary plus the champions from Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Yukon and Northwest Territories. McEwen starts against P-E-I and Kleiter against Nova Scotia on the March 1 afternoon draw. They’ll play each other on the afternoon shift on March 5. Following is the news release from Curling Canada…..

For Immediate Release
Feb. 10, 2025

Field, round-robin pools finalized
for 2025 Montana’s Brier in Kelowna

An 18-team field, as well as the composition of the two round-robin pools and the final schedule, are now set for the 2025 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI.

The final two entries were decided on Sunday, as Calgary’s Team Kevin Koe captured the Alberta championship and Team Reid Carruthers of Winnipeg won the Manitoba title to qualify for the Canadian Men’s Curling Championship, which will run Feb. 28-March 9 at Prospera Place in Kelowna, B.C.

They will be part of a field that will feature reigning champions Brad Gushue’s Team Canada squad from St. John’s, N.L., 14 provincial/territorial champions and three 2023-24 Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) qualifiers split into two pools of nine.

Team Gushue, which will be in pursuit of a record fourth straight Montana’s Brier title, joined 2023-24 CTRS qualifiers Team Matt Dunstone of Winnipeg, Team Brad Jacobs of Calgary and 2024 Montana’s Brier runner-up Team Mike McEwen of Saskatchewan as pre-qualified entries.

Teams will play a complete eight-game round robin within their pools. From there, the top three teams in each pool advance to the playoffs.

There will be no tiebreakers; if teams are tied for a playoff spot, head-to-head results will be the first tiebreaker, and if that doesn’t resolve the tie, Last-Shot Draw rankings will rank the teams — the same formula used at World Championship events and the Winter Olympics.

The playoff format will see the first-place team from Pool A meeting second place from Pool B, and vice versa, in the first round of the playoffs at 12:30 p.m. (all times Pacific) on March 7, with the winners going directly to the Page playoff 1-2 game, while the losers meet the third-place finishers in the pools March 7 at 6:30 p.m. The winners of those games will advance to the Page playoff 3-4 game.

The standard Page playoffs commence with the winner of the Page 1v2 game on Saturday, March 8, at 6:30 p.m., advancing directly to the final, and the loser plays the winner of the Page 3v4 game (scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on March 8) in the semifinal.

The semifinal (Sunday, March 9, at 11 a.m.) winner takes on the winner of the Page 1v2 game in the gold-medal game at 5 p.m. on Sunday. The winner will represent Canada at the 2025 BKT Tires World Men’s Curling Championship March 29-April 6 in Moose Jaw, Sask.

Here’s a look at how the two pools are set up:

(Teams listed according to overall seeding, and listed in order of skip [player calling the shots], vice-skip [player holding the broom for the skip], second, lead, alternate, coach/High Performance Consultant)

Pool A

1. Team Canada, Brad Gushue (Mark Nichols, Brendan Bottcher, Geoff Walker, Adam Casey, Jeff Hoffart; St. John’s, N.L.)
4. Manitoba-Dunstone, Matt Dunstone (Colton Lott, E.J. Harnden, Ryan Harnden, Adam Kingsbury, Caleb Flaxey; Winnipeg)
5. Northern Ontario, John Epping (Jacob Horgan, Tanner Horgan, Ian McMillan, Mike Harris; Sudbury)
8. Alberta-Koe, Kevin Koe (Aaron Sluchinski, Tyler Tardi, Karrick Martin, Mike Libbus, John Dunn; Calgary)
9. Manitoba-Carruthers, Reid Carruthers (B.J. Neufeld, Catlin Schneider, Connor Njegovan, Kyle Doering, Rob Meakin; Winnipeg)
12. British Columbia, Cameron de Jong (Alex Horvath, Corey Chester, Brayden Carpenter, Paul Cseke, Bryan Miki; Victoria)
13. New Brunswick, James Grattan (Joel Krats, Paul Dobson, Andy McCann, Drew Grattan, Dean Grattan; Oromocto)
16. Newfoundland/Labrador, Ty Dilello (Ryan McNeil Lamswood, Daniel Bruce, Aaron Feltham, Nathan King, Mike Mahon; St. John’s)
17. Nunavut, Shane Latimer (Sheldon Wettig, Justin McDonell, Peter Van Strien, Katie Brooks; Iqaluit)

Pool B

2. Alberta-Jacobs, Brad Jacobs (Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant, Ben Hebert, Mike Caione, Paul Webster; Calgary)
3. Saskatchewan-McEwen, Mike McEwen (Kevin Marsh [throws second stones], Colton Flasch [throws third stones], Daniel Marsh, Brent Laing, Pat Simmons; Saskatoon)
6. Saskatchewan-Kleiter, Rylan Kleiter (Matthew Hall [throws second stones], Joshua Mattern, Trevor Johnson, John Mattern, Dean Kleiter; Saskatoon)
7. Ontario, Sam Mooibroek (Ryan Wiebe, Scott Mitchell, Nathan Steele, Gavin Lydiate, Jake Higgs; Whitby)
10. Quebec, Félix Asselin (Jean-Michel Ménard, Martin Crête, Jean-François Trépanier, Pierre Charette; Glenmore/Valleyfield/Etchemin/Des Collines/Belvedere)
11. Nova Scotia, Owen Purcell (Luke Saunders, Scott Saccary, Ryan Abraham, Calan MacIsaac, Colleen Jones; Halifax)
14. Prince Edward Island, Tyler Smith (Adam Cocks, Christopher Gallant, Edward White, Paul Flemming; Crapaud)
15. Yukon, Thomas Scoffin (Kerr Drummond, Trygg Jensen, Joe Wallingham; Whitehorse)
18. Northwest Territories, Aaron Bartling (D’Arcy Delorey, Norman Bassett, Eric Preston, Adam Naugler; Hay River)

Note: Because some matchups featuring the pre-qualified teams were pre-set as part of ticket-marketing campaigns, the pools were adjusted based on the approved seeding methodology as worked on in collaboration with Curling Canada’s Athlete Council.

For the entire 2025 Montana’s Brier schedule, click here.