 Calgary's Team Kevin Koe (Photo: Team Koe) reigns supreme in the west to capture first tour title of the year. By: Cameron Sallaj When the dust settled at the RBC Dominion Securities Western Showdown it was Kevin Koe and his team of Aaron Sluchinski, Tyler Tardi and Karrick Martin who came out in top, taking down Team Brad Jacobs in an all-Alberta final game. By qualifying through the B side, Jacobs, with Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert opened the game with hammer, swiping a deuce after splitting the house early in the end. This was then matched by Koe in the second who made a nose hit to tie the score. In three, it appeared it would be another two count for Team Jacobs, however, an unexpected roll out on Brad's last rock resulted in just a single point score. Koe also looked prime to take two the following end before a double by Jacobs resulted in a blank. Down 3-2 in the fifth, Team Koe got a pair of misses by Hebert and Gallant which allowed them to sit three rocks in the rings. With Jacobs choosing to draw instead of hit Koe's stones, the yellow rocks kept piling up. This culminated in a double takeout for four which Kevin Koe did not miss, pushing his team ahead by three with just three ends left to play. Not going away, Jacobs tacked a deuce on the board in six and added a single point in seven when Koe's final runback couldn't remove both counters. This meant the game sat at an even 6-6 tie with Koe's crew holding last stone in eight. Already sitting shot rock, Brad Jacobs chose to double out Koe's two remaining counters with his last rock of the game to lie three. With a draw to the four-foot for the win, Koe's shot hung wide, however, got a lucky tick off Jacobs' rock in the top twelve, getting enough of a redirect to count one and win the game 7-6. RBC Dominion Securities Western Showdown - Men's Final - Brad Jacobs vs Kevin Koe: Taking home $13,000 CAD and 48.750 ranking points for first place, the RBC Dominion Securities Western Showdown is the first tour title for Koe and his rink following the departure of second Jacques Gauthier in September. Since then, the team has struggled, dropping from tenth to twenty-seventh in the world and only reaching the playoffs in three of eight events played. With the points from Swift Current added, the team will move back inside the top 20 as they try to re-enter the Grand Slam events. With 35.750 points for second place, Team Jacobs will move up to fourth in the world, surpassing Italy's Joel Retornaz. As opposed to Team Koe, the Jacobs rink have had an impressive 2024-25 season to date, reaching the playoffs in seven of eight events and winning the Nufloors Penticton Curling Classic. With a direct bye into the 2025 Montana's Brier, the Calgary squad is one of the favorites to capture the Canadian men's title alongside Gushue, McEwen and Dunstone who all currently ranked inside the top ten. Team Kevin Koe finished 4-2 in the 20-team qualifying round at the RBC Dominion Securities Western Showdown. After suffering a 9-8 loss to John Epping (Sudbury, NO) in their opening game, the team got on a roll in the B bracket, beating both Steve Laycock (Swift Current, SK) and Evan van Amsterdam (Edmonton, AB) 8-4 before downing Dustin Kalthoff (Saskatoon, SK) 6-4 to reach the qualifier. They then lost 7-5 to Rylan Kleiter (Saskatoon, SK) before beating Daniel Casper (Chaska, MN) 7-6 in the final qualifying game. Entering the playoffs through the C side, Team Koe stole a 6-3 win over Team Epping in the quarterfinals before bouncing Brent Pierce (New Westminster, BC) 3-2 in the semifinal round. |
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Calgary's Brad Jacobs (Photo: Curling Canada/Andrew Klaver) defeats Winnipeg's Matt Dunstone 6-5, winning 2 games to 0 in a best-of-three final at the Montana's Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in Halifax, N.
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