Ottawa’s Rachel Homan punched her ticket to the women’s final and Calgary’s Brad Jacobs advanced on the men’s side, while St. John’s skip Brad Gushue was eliminated after missing a pivotal shot at the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials.
Homan edged Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., 7-6 on Wednesday to clinch first in the women's round robin.
The two rinks finished the preliminary round with 6-1 records, but Homan earned the direct path to the best-of-three final with the head-to-head win.
“That was our goal at the beginning of the week,” said Homan. “The field is so tough that we needed everything today to make it to that final and I’m really proud of the girls for battling through.
"(It’s) huge. There's no other way to say it. It's a big game for us to get into the final and get a bit of rest (Thursday), get on the ice for a bit and then more of the same looking forward to the weekend."
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Jacobs earned his bye hours earlier with a 6-2 win over Winnipeg’s Matt Dunstone.
The 2014 Olympic champion finished atop the men’s standings at 6-1 after also beating — and eliminating — 2006 gold medallist Gushue in the final round-robin draw Wednesday evening.
Gushue, who’s playing his final competitive season, fell 6-3 to Jacobs in a dramatic finish. Needing a win to stay alive, the veteran skip missed his final throw with a chance to score three with the hammer while trailing 5-3 in the 10th end.
The miss meant Gushue didn't reach the Canadian Trials playoffs for the first time in his career.
“They can be lethal, he can be lethal, and he's been that way the majority of the last 10 years — a lot in his career,” Jacobs said. “Anytime you have an opportunity to eliminate a great team like that, you've got to take advantage of that opportunity. We played great tonight, we had a really great day, I think this was our best day that we've had as a team in terms of performance and executing.
"That bodes well moving into the finals.”
Gushue tied Dunstone for third at 4-3, but Dunstone advanced by virtue of winning their head-to-head matchup earlier in the round robin.
Dunstone will face Saskatoon’s Mike McEwen (5-2) in Thursday night’s men’s semifinal. McEwen, who handed Gushue a 9-7 loss Wednesday morning, also beat Dunstone 9-5 in the evening draw.
He'll make his first playoff appearance in eight years after finishing runner-up in 2017.
“Opening night, I definitely didn't have my best stuff, but we got it done, and I felt different after that Saturday. I felt that way right until now. I don’t know what it is, but just a better presence — more in the moment. That helps, I think the guys feed off me,” McEwen said.
“I'm kind of bouncing around. I’ve got good body movement and energy. It’s good for the team, and I think that helped carry us through four really tough games to get to five and two.”
Homan, meanwhile, 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. The final starts Friday.
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.
Black suggested a new "curling god" was on her side, a reference to Colleen Jones. The legendary curler and longtime broadcaster from Halifax died Tuesday at age 65 after being diagnosed with cancer in 2023.
“We came into today and we knew we had to do everything we could do — win our game, and hope things worked out,” said Black. “But we also knew there's this new curling god up there, and you always say you pray to the curling gods.
"Well, we have the best one up there now, who's on our side. She's doing everything she can, and we'll just go and leave it all out there like she would. She's a fighter, she doesn't give up — her whole career, her whole life, so, we're like, we can do this."
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.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 26, 2025.
