Carruthers, Sluchinski, Koe complete Canadian men's curling championship field

Alberta's Aaron Sluchinski, Manitoba's Reid Carruthers and wild-card Kevin Koe completed the 18-team field for the national men's curling championship Sunday.

Carruthers, whose team is skipped by Brad Jacobs, doubled Braden Calvert 6-3 in Manitoba's men's final in Stonewall.

Jacobs, winner of 11 Northern Ontario championships and an Olympic gold medal in 2014, came out of retirement to join Carruthers's team last year. Carruthers announced in December his shift to throwing third stones to make Jacobs his skip.

Jacobs will wear Manitoba colours March 1-10 at the Montana's Brier in Regina.

"This was an eye-opening experience for me," Jacobs told Curl Manitoba. "I've never played a provincial championship in Manitoba before.

"There's a ton of talent here. There's great young teams and players coming up. Team Calvert, obviously a world-class team. They played awesome today. I feel for them right now. It sucks to lose that final, but I'm sure they'll keep working hard and we have a ton of respect for them."

Big hugs all around for the <a href="https://twitter.com/curlmanitoba?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@curlmanitoba</a> champs - <a href="https://twitter.com/teamcarruthers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@teamcarruthers</a>! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Brier2024?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Brier2024</a> <a href="https://t.co/YELBQ5FJif">pic.twitter.com/YELBQ5FJif</a>

Jacobs, Carruthers, second Derek Samagalski and Connor Njegovan led 4-3 after eight ends Sunday. Calvert blanked the ninth and gave up a steal of two in the 10th.

Sluchinski upset Koe 6-3 in Alberta's final Sunday. Sluchinski, third Jeremy Harty, second Kerr Drummond and lead Dylan Webster from the Airdrie Curling Club scored two in the first end and stole a point