There was nothing familiar about Team Matt Dunstone’s opening game Friday afternoon at the 2026 LGT World Men’s Curling Championship.
The Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden, Utah, hasn’t hosted top-level curling since the 2002 Winter Olympics; the stones being used haven’t been used in any kind of competition since 2020; and two members of Team Canada — Dunstone and vice-skip Colton Lott — were making their World Men’s Championship debuts.
But the game plan of patience, waiting for and then taking advantage of opportunities, and managing the scoreboard — that was VERY familiar to those who watched this team win gold at the 2026 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI.
It was on display again Friday as Team Canada outlasted South Korea’s Team Changmin Kim 5-2.
The Canadian champs — rounded out by second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden, alternate Geoff Walker, team coach Caleb Flaxey and national coach Jeff Stoughton — scored the game’s first (and only) deuce in the eighth end, and it proved decisive.
“I mean, after the fifth-end break, you kind of knew the first deuce was going to win that game,” said Dunstone. “We weren’t in much trouble the entire game; we didn’t have a whole lot cooking, but we were never in trouble. And that’s kind of our MO (modus operandi), that’s our DNA, and we stuck to that and then got the deuce in eight.”
It was a close-to-the-vest first seven ends, with neither team able to generate more than single points. Dunstone was forced to draw for single points in the second and fifth ends, while Kim had to make a double-takeout for one in the fourth and draw for one in the sixth to tie it at 2-2.
After a blanked seventh, it was E.J. Harnden finally striking the blow that opened the door for Team Canada. He made a wonderful runback double-takeout that would lead to Canada splitting the rings, and then protecting the deuce for the rest of the end. Dunstone finished it off with a delicate come-around tap after Kim’s hit-and-roll attempt.
“E.J. made two great shots to set that up and we just took control of the game from there,” said Dunstone.
An end later, Canada got some insurance when Dunstone made a perfect hit-and-roll buried, and Kim couldn’t dig it out, producing a stolen single point. In the 10th, Dunstone’s short runback takeout ran South Korea out of stones.
It was a 10-year wait for Dunstone to put on the Canadian jacket; he last did it at the 2016 World Junior Championships, so there were some butterflies before Friday’s game, he admitted.
“Yeah, there was a lot going on,” he said with a smile. “It was a bit of a whirlwind. It’s been 10 years since I had this feeling — a lot of excitement, a lot of anticipation. I’m just very proud of this group for being here. We’ve been through a lot together and had a lot of heartbreak and we finally got through and now we’re here. So that part of it feels awesome. I’m glad the first game’s done and over with, and now we’re on to curling.”
Team Canada is back on the ice later Friday, taking on Italy’s Team Stefano Spiller at 7 p.m.
In other Friday afternoon games, Sweden’s Team Niklas Edin shaded Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte 6-5; China’s Team Xiaoming Xu scored two in the 10th end for an 8-7 triumph over Czechia’s Team Lukas Klima; and Japan’s Team Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi was a 6-4 victor over Norway’s Team Andreas Haarstad.
Italy, Germany’s Team Marc Muskatewitz, Poland’s Team Konrad Stych, Switzerland’s Team Marco Hoesli and Team John Shuster of the United States all had byes.
TSN/RDS2, the official broadcast partners of Curling Canada’s Season of Champions, will provide live coverage of Canada’s round-robin games, in addition to all playoff games. CLICK HERE for their complete broadcast schedule.
The list of teams, schedule information, and live scoring can be found by CLICKING HERE.
This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/fr/nouvelles-media/.
