HALIFAX — Ottawa’s Rachel Homan edged Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., 7-6 on Wednesday to clinch first in the women’s round robin at the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials.
The two rinks finished the preliminary round with 6-1 records. Homan earned the direct bye to the best-of-three women’s final with the head-to-head win.
Homan scored two in the eighth for a 7-4 advantage before Einarson countered with singles in each of the final two ends.
Einarson will face hometown favourite Christina Black in a Thursday semifinal.
Black scored three in the 10th end for a 10-6 victory over Kate Cameron of St. Adolphe, Man., to finish tied for third at 4-2 with Winnipeg’s Kaitlyn Lawes and Edmonton’s Selena Sturmay. She moved on to the semifinal by having the best cumulative last stone draw ranking of the three teams.
The last stone draw is a pre-game competition where two players from each team deliver a stone to the centre of the house. The team closest to the centre wins the hammer for the match.
Lawes recorded four in the 10th for a 9-6 decision over Calgary’s Kayla Skrlik while Sturmay defeated Corryn Brown of Kamloops, B.C., 9-4 in nine ends.
Earlier, Calgary’s Brad Jacobs surged ahead of the pack in the race for a bye to the men’s final.
Jacobs (5-1) moved into sole possession of top spot in the men’s standings with one draw to go after a 6-2 win over Winnipeg’s Matt Dunstone. Jacobs put the game away with a steal of two in the 10th end.
Dunstone fell into a tie for second at 4-2 with Saskatoon’s Mike McEwen and Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L. McEwen defeated Gushue 9-7 Wednesday morning.
Jacobs, the ’14 Olympic champion, was set to face Gushue, the 2006 gold medallist, in a key game in the final round-robin draw Wednesday evening.
The winner of the men’s and women’s competitions get a bye directly to their respective best-of-three final, while the second- and third-ranked teams face off in a knockout semifinal.
The tournament winners will represent Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, Italy.
In other early results, Toronto’s John Epping defeated Calgary’s Kevin Koe 8-4 and Winnipeg’s Jordon McDonald edged Saskatoon’s Ryan Kleiter 7-6.
Koe was at 3-3 entering the final draw, with Epping at 2-4 and McDonald and Kleiter at 1-5.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 26, 2025.
The Canadian Press
