HALIFAX – Kerri Einarson continued her undefeated run through the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials with a 6-5 win over Kayla Skrlik on Tuesday.
Einarson’s squad from Gimli, Man., entered the night game with a playoff spot already secured, thanks to a morning win and other favourable results. But Einarson, a four-time Canadian women’s champion, improved to 6-0 after scoring a single in the final frame against Calgary’s Skrlik (2-4).
“Given the season we’ve had, I know we came out with a win for the start of our season, and then it was just kind of taken away and grinding,” Einarson said. “We’ve been really coming together this week as a team and as a unit, so it feels really good.”
Ottawa’s Rachel Homan kept the heat on Einarson with a 5-1 record after a narrow 8-7 win over Winnipeg’s Kaitlyn Lawes (3-3).
Homan gave up a steal of three in the seventh end. However, the two-time reigning Canadian and world champions replied with two in eight and stole a single in nine for a two-point lead. Lawes had a chance to bring the game to an extra, but it was heavy on the draw, settling for one.
“I think we had a tough break there, and we stayed tough. We stayed resilient, we fought back and put ourselves in a good opportunity to take control of the game back,” Homan said.
Both Einarson and Homan are guaranteed a spot in the three-team playoffs and set up a round-robin finale matchup on Wednesday afternoon for first place and a bye into the best-of-three finals.
A brief ceremony in memory of legendary curler Colleen Jones took place before the evening draw.
Jones, a Halifax native who won six Canadian titles and two world championships over her career, died Tuesday morning at age 65. She was diagnosed with cancer early in 2023.
In other evening draw action, Kate Cameron (1-5) of St. Adolphe, Man., defeated Corryn Brown (1-5) of Kamloops, B.C., 8-3 and Edmonton’s Selena Sturmay (3-3) topped Halifax’s Christina Black (3-3) 9-7.
Earlier in a men’s afternoon draw, 2006 Olympic champion Brad Gushue and 2014 gold medallist Brad Jacobs won their matches to create a three-way tie for first place.
Gushue, from St. John’s, N.L., scored two in an extra end for an 8-6 win over Winnipeg’s Jordon McDonald. Jacobs and his Calgary rink posted a 6-4 win over Toronto’s John Epping.
Gushue, Jacobs and Winnipeg’s Matt Dunstone were at 4-1 heading into the final two men’s round-robin draws on Wednesday. Dunstone suffered his first loss of the tournament Tuesday afternoon, falling 5-4 to Calgary’s Kevin Koe.
The team that finishes atop the round-robin standings in each competition gets direct entry into the best-of-three final, while the second and third seeds face off in a semifinal.
In the other men’s match, Mike McEwen beat Ryan Kleiter 9-7 in a battle of Saskatoon skips.
McEwen and Koe were right behind the leaders at 3-2, while Kleiter and Epping were 1-4 and McDonald was 0-5.
In the morning draw, Black stole one in each of the final two ends to edge Skrlik 6-5 and Lawes defeated Cameron 5-3. Einarson defeated Sturmay 9-7 and Homan beat Brown 10-3.
The winner of the men’s and women’s trials will represent Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, Italy.
