REGINA – The end came quickly for Team Northern Ontario.
When all was said and done, the result of their round-robin finale at the 2024 Montana’s Brier in Regina was a moot point.
Bonot, third Mike McCarville, second Jordan Potts and lead Kurtis Byrd dropped an 8-7 decision on Thursday night to a one-win Thomas Scoffin, representing Yukon, but win or lose, their magical run at the national men’s curling championship had come to a crashing halt a little while earlier.
Needing both to beat Yukon and for Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone one sheet over to lose to Andrew Symonds’ Newfoundland and Labrador foursome, it became crystal clear early in the latter match that things weren’t going to go Bonot’s way.
Dunstone scored early and often, building a 5-1 lead through three ends and put it away with a steal of three more in the fourth. He'd go on to beat the Atlantic Canadian squad 12-4.
Dunstone had beaten Bonot 8-3 earlier in the day and both teams entered play at 5-2, chasing down the third and final playoff spot, Dunstone owning the head-to-head tiebreaker and comfortably ahead in the last stone draw standings in the event of a multiple-team tiebreaker, a new rule introduced in 2024 to emulate the way ties in the standings are solved at the world championship level.
Manitoba’s Reid Carruthers was already in the playoffs as was Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher, the 2021 Brier champ.
Bonot’s only hope was to win and hope that Symonds could find a way to upset Dunstone.
Team Northern Ontario struggled mightily against Scoffin, who finished the week at 2-6.
Scoffin scored an easy deuce in the opening end, then, after holding Bonot to a single in the second, added two more in the fourth to take a 4-1 lead.
Bonot fought back with a huge three-ender in the fifth, but promptly gave Scoffin back the lead, giving up two in the sixth.
Twice more Bonot was able to tie the match, sending it to an extra end.
But without hammer, he couldn’t manufacture a steal and Scoffin, third Trygg Jensen, second Joseph Wallingham and lead Evan Latos, walked away with the upset win.
The mostly rookie Team Northern Ontario still managed to put in an impressive week at the Brier, opening plenty of eyes with a 5-3 win, including a 6-5 win over Botcher, and started 5-1.
In the end, the numbers just weren’t on their side.
