Team Jacobs advances, Brad Gushue calls it a career at the 2026 Montana’s Brier

One of the greatest Canadian curlers of all time can now, finally, close the history books on a storied career, as Brad Gushue has thrown his final competitive men’s curling rock at the 2026 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI.

Gushue, alongside third Mark Nichols, second/vice-skip Brendan Bottcher, lead Geoff Walker, alternate Adam Casey and coach Jeff Hoffart, bowed 7-5 to Team Canada, skipped by Brad Jacobs (Calgary) in the Page 3-4 playoff at the Mary Brown’s Centre in St. John’s.

The Saturday afternoon loss spells an emotional end of Team Gushue’s 2026 Montana’s Brier campaign, and with it, Gushue’s competitive men’s career.

“I’m thankful for the amount of appreciation and love I was showed,” said Gushue after a touching post-game retirement tribute. “That was special to me. That’s a memory I’ll have for the rest of my life.”

The fairy-tale ending of Gushue being on top of the Montana’s Brier podium on Sunday in front of a packed house of adoring Newfoundland and Labrador fans, sadly, did not come to fruition.

“Obviously, the disappointment of a loss and being knocked out still hits hard,” said Gushue. “But, you know, to see that sort of love, I’m not sure how to describe it. I feel fortunate. I’m going to miss it, but I’m also excited for what’s to come — a lot of emotions.”

The six-time Montana’s Brier champion Gushue has largely done it all: Olympic gold in 2006 in Italy, world men’s champion in 2017 in Edmonton, and just about every single Brier record in the book has Gushue’s name near or at the top.

Still, with nothing left to prove, the skip hates to lose.

“It sucks to lose, no matter who it is to,” said Gushue. “At the end of the day, (Jacobs) is a really good team. They have a good chance of winning. Let’s be honest, we’re not the best team in the country anymore. We were for a long time, but we haven’t played like that over the last two years, and (Jacobs) has.”

For two skips with careers as illustrious as Newfoundland and Labrador’s Brad Gushue and Team Canada’s Brad Jacobs, it’s astounding that the two have never met in a Montana’s Brier final.

Sharing a combined eight national men’s crowns in 38 Montana’s Brier appearances before entering the field of play this week at the Mary Brown’s Centre in St. John’s, it seemed almost fated that the two would line up in the final, but again, the story-book ending did not pan out.

The win vaults the Team Canada collective into the semifinal on Sunday at 1:30 p.m., (all times NL), where they’ll face the loser of this evening’s Page 1v2 match in either Alberta’s Team Kevin Koe (Calgary) or Manitoba’s Team Matt Dunstone (Winnipeg).

“The Battle of the Brads has been a thing for about 15-20 years,” said Team Canada skip Brad Jacobs. “So if anyone was going to go end it for their week? I like that it was us. We’re on a dream roll as a team and when we put it all together, we’re a really hard team to beat.”

Through a tight opening half saw the two superstar squadrons knotted at two, Team Jacobs had half a step on Team Gushue for most of the game. Gushue himself bailed his team out on multiple occasions, including a stellar run-back double in the fifth on Gushue’s seven-rock to open up the scoring area. Even with the stellar shot, Gushue would end up forced, which was the best possible outcome for the St. John’s outfit as a steal loomed.

“Gushue made some really great shots to keep them in it,” said Jacobs. “We put together our best game of the week as a team.”

Team Jacobs — rounded out by vice-skip Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant, lead Ben Hebert, alternate Mike Caione and coach Paul Webster — finally found the gap in Team Gushue’s armour in the sixth, ripping the game open with a score of three. With all kinds of shrapnel in play, Jacobs stared down a relatively routine double that was sure to score at least two, but the Jacobs offering struck its intended target perfectly to stick around for a third point.

“When he made that shot for three in six, it was like, ‘this is an uphill battle,’ ” said Gushue. “The likelihood is that this is going to be the last one. I thought we fought hard and I was able to sink those thoughts.”

Gushue’s uphill battle only worsened in the 10th where, down one without hammer, Hebert made two perfect shots on his openers to largely put the game out of reach.

“Ben made those two perfect draws,” said Gushue. “I was like ‘This doesn’t look good for a steal opportunity’ and the thoughts crept back. Probably overthrew my first one because of that. I think there was a little bit of emotion and adrenaline there.”

Team Gushue bounced Team Jacobs 4-2 in pool play on all the way back in pool play on Thursday.

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2026 Montana’s Brier are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/.

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For ticket information for the 2026 Montana’s Brier, go to www.curling.ca/2026brier/tickets/

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/fr/2026brier/nouvelles/