QUEST FOR THE OLYMPICS

Dunstone, Flasch chase five rings

Matt Dunstone will appreciate that first slide out of a hack on Wednesday, and the first rumbling rocks.

The Regina Highland skip is in Ottawa, competing for a perpetually beckoning spot at the Canadian Olympic curling trials. It was topof-mind before COVID-19, and remains there today. Five teams are in Ottawa at the direct-entry event, shooting for two berths at the trials in Saskatoon Nov. 20-28.

“It's so great to be on an airplane, travelling across the country, going to all these different hotels and trying new restaurants — seeing places we haven't seen for a long time,” Dunstone said when asked if his appreciation for the trials-chase is heightened by what's happened since the pandemic arrived in Canada.

“That's the part of it we've missed the most and that we're really thankful for, is we get to travel across the country and compete. We get the feeling of those nerves; the excitement. Those are the sorts of things you miss, and we're feeling very lucky to have that again. And hopefully it's here to stay.”

Dunstone, the defending Saskatchewan Tankard champion and a semifinalist at last season's Brier, is in Ottawa with third Braeden Moskowy, second Kirk Muyres and lead Dustin Kidby.

Also there is Saskatoon Nutana's Colton Flasch, who plays with third Catlin Schneider, second Kevin Marsh and lead Daniel Marsh.

The five-team field is rounded out by Winnipeg's Jason Gunnlaugson, Glenn Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont., and Winnipeg 's Mike Mcewen.

The odds are better at this week's Ottawa spiel than in most events — two out of five move on — but Dunstone said that's not how his quartet is thinking of it.

“Whether there's one, two, three, four spots — any spiel you play — you play to win it,” said Dunstone, who reached the semifinal at the recent Stu Sells Oakville Tankard. “We're not going to be in here this week trying to slide in the back door, in second spot. Our goal is to come here and be as dominant as we can, and lock up that first-place spot and not have to go through the whole playoff scenario. Our goal here is to win it through the round robin.”

Dunstone opens Wednesday night against Howard, and Flasch takes on Mcewen.

Five women's teams — Suzanne Birt of Charlottetown, Corryn Brown of Kamloops, Kelsey Rocque of Edmonton, Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge and Laura Walker of Edmonton — are also competing in Ottawa for two Saskatoon berths.

Dunstone's team, based on their place in the Canadian Team Ranking System, could have qualified for the trials already if the pandemic hadn't arrived. Because of COVID-19, Curling Canada opted to expand its format with a series of pretrial events.

Dunstone says he's already thought it through, and it's not a concern as his team prepares to curl in Ottawa.

“I did all that thinking during the summer,” he said. “At this point, that's over and done with. It is what it is, and we're going out there to compete and hopefully get one of the spots we've been looking to get for a couple of years now.”