Dunstone advances to championship pool at the Brier

Matt Dunstone is moving on.

Dunstone’s Saskatchewan foursome qualified for championship pool play at the Tim Hortons Brier in Calgary with a 7-5 victory Thursday afternoon over the Nova Scotia team skipped by Scott McDonald.

With the win, the Dunstone rink — which also includes Braeden Moskowy, Kirk Muyres and Dustin Kidby — improved to 6-2 in the round-robin portion of the Canadian men’s curling championship.

Kevin Koe’s Wild Card 2 entry finished atop Pool B with a 7-1 record, with Team Canada’s Brad Gushue and Ontario’s John Epping joining Dunstone at 6-2.

The top four teams in each of the two round-robin pools advance to the championship pool. The top three finishers in that pool move on to the playoffs, with the team with the best record going right to Sunday’s final.

After a blank in the first end Thursday, Dunstone scored three in the second end and stole one in the third. The teams traded singles through the next four ends before McDonald scored three in the eighth to cut the Saskatchewan lead to 6-5.

Dunstone scored one in the ninth and ran the Nova Scotians out of rocks in the 10th for the victory.