THUNDER BAY – Expectations have changed in Regina.
Trevor Bonot, the rookie Team Northern Ontario skip, and his third, Mike McCarville, said not even their best laid plans for the 2024 Montana’s Brier had them sitting at 5-1 through six games, on the cusp of clinching one of three Pool A playoff spots.
“It was honestly not part of any plan,” said Bonot, a former Canadian mixed curling champion and world championship silver medallist.
“All we ever said to each other was we want to go play hard and win games. We never put a number on it, never had that goal or mindset. It was literally to take it game by game, day by day. That’s what we’ve done and it really worked out for us.”
The team, which includes lead Kurtis Byrd and second Jordan Potts, started out 2-0 before losing on a last shot draw by former Northern Ontario foe Brad Jacobs, throwing skip stones for Manitoba’s Reid Carruthers.
Since then, they have yet to taste defeat, knocking off Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher, B.C.’s Catlin Schneider and Ontario’s Scott Howard.
They’re one of three teams with one loss, with Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone and Yukon’s Thomas Scoffin left on Thursday to complete the Brier round robin.
Collectively, Team Bonot, with legendary coach Al Hackner at the helm, is having a fantastic week on the ice, making 86 per cent of their draws and 83 per cent of their takeouts.
It’s a team-first mentality, Bonot said, adding they’re doing their best to turn off the outside noise.
“I say this all the time, we’re just a great team and we stick together. When we’re high and when we’re low -- we’re still a good team and I think that’s really the calling card for Team Northern Ontario this week. We’re sticking by each other through it all and it shows going through the things we’re going through,” he said.
“We’re getting a lot of attention and we’ve just got to keep that to one side and just play our game when we get on the ice.”
McCarville is the lone member of the team with past Brier experience. He said the Jeff Currie team went to the 2014 Brier to do their best, but admitted he never really thought they had a chance to be one of the top teams.
This time, it was different, despite the relative anonymity of the foursome Bonot has put together.
“I knew with this team it would be a different mentality. I didn’t get an opportunity to do it 10 years ago, but I was really looking forward to doing it with this team because this team works harder than that team did back then. This team has put more time in, travelled a little bit more. We just have a good belief in each other and I think we fit our roles pretty well. And Trev’s such a good skip,” McCarville said.
He added they’ve adapted to the ice, which has been a bone of contention for some teams.
“The ice has been great, in our opinion. It’s not perfect, which actually works to our advantage a little bit, because if a side curls a little more, take a little more ice, where I think those big teams are expecting it to be exactly the same all the time,” McCarville said.
Though the playoffs are nearing, Bonot said that’s the last thing on their mind with a full day of curling in front of them on Thursday.
“I think we’ll just go out tomorrow with that one-game mindset and play our hardest. If we have to fight for every point, we will, and that’s just it. We’re not looking past the morning game."
Team Bonot will take on Dunstone at 10 a.m. and Scoffin at 8 p.m. A win over Dunstone clinches a playoff spot.
