![]() Manitoba's Jordan McDonald (Photo: Michael Burns, Curling Canada) defeated Alberta's Johnson Tao 5-2 in the U25 NextGen Classic in Edmonton, Alberta. By Connor Simms, #19 World-Ranked Jordan McDonald with Elias Huminicki and Cameron Olafson on the front end, will look a bit different for the 2025-2026 season. Earlier this summer, the team announced their departure from third Dallas Burgess. His replacement is the 2020 World Junior Champion Jacques Gauthier. Starting at #47 in the world last season, McDonald climbed the rankings to #19. Making their first Grand Slam of Curling event and qualifying for the 2025 Olympic Pre-trials in Nova Scotia, McDonald looks to keep improving this season. They are in Edmonton, Alberta, at the U25 NextGen Classic. This is a 12-team event with the top 2 teams in each pool crossing over to play a semi-final and a final. The winner of this event claims a spot in the Canadian NextGen program. They look to defend their title after winning it in 2024. This event started McDonald's epic run last season, making playoffs in 14 of their 16 events. They defeated Manitoba's Tanner Graham 10-4 earlier on Tuesday. They then took on Alberta's Johnson Tao Tuesday evening, winning the opening draw to the button for the hammer. In the first end, McDonald opened the game with a single after drawing to the button with backing. Forcing a draw against four, Tao was able to outcount three McDonald stones, giving up a steal of one. Facing three more in the third end, Tao was able to hit four-foot to score their single. Tao tied the game with a steal of one, after McDonald drew to the side of the button. After a blank in the fifth end, McDonald was able to make a double tap to the four-foot, for their first deuce of the game. McDonald stole another point in the seventh, after Tao came up light on a draw. Ultimately, Tao was unable to find the three points to tie the game, leaving the result 5-2 in favour of McDonald. Their next game is Wednesday at 9:00 am Central Time (CT) against Ontario's Daniel Hocever. Later Wednesday at 5:00 pm CT, they take on Nova Scotia's Calan MacIsaac. They wrap up the round robin with Alberta's Jacob Libbus on Thursday at 9:00 am CT. The playoffs will continue on Thursday. All the games are streamed on the CurlingZone YouTube page. Games can also be found on the website by pressing the red play button next to the live score. |