‘Feels better this time’: Knapp and Campbell crowned, Highland Curling Club sweeps provincial curling championships

Highland teams captured both titles as Curl Saskatchewan handed out green jackets, sending provincial champions onto the nationals. Donovan Maess has more.

Regina’s Highland Curling Club added some hardware Sunday as two of the rink’s teams claimed provincial championships at the men’s Tankard and women’s Pinnacle in Melville, Sask.

On the back of an important ninth end, Kelly Knapp’s rink defeated defending champion Rylan Kleiter 9-4 in the 2026 SaskTel Tankard, Knapp’s second provincial championship as a skip.

“It feels even better this time,” he told reporters Sunday night. “I just know the work we put in this year and just how well we’ve been playing, It kind of felt like before the week started that this could be our week. So it’s just nice to see it come to fruition.”

Two misses by Kleiter with his stones gifted Knapp a deuce in the penultimate end. Needing two in the 10th, Kleiter would miss the angle raise to tie – a steal of three for Knapp.

A back-and-forth affair beginning with a first end blank before Kleiter forced Knapp to a single in the second.

Knapp would return the favour the very next end, as Kleiter had to settle for a single in the third.

Down 2-1 after five, Kleiter came out firing out of the break. A Knapp miss with his final stone of the sixth end would open the door for an easy hit, a deuce and the lead for Team Kleiter.

In the very next end, with Knapp sitting three, Kleiter would throw a hard peel, clearing the second and third shot stones – forcing Knapp to draw for two and a 4-3 lead.

An exciting eighth end saw Team Knapp make two tough runbacks, including a double by third Brennan Jones and then the skip with a triple to force Kleiter to a single to tie the game before that swing ninth end.

Despite the lopsided score, the final match came down to the last rock.

“We knew that it was going to come down to the end,” Knapp said. “We got a few misses out of them. I think they got caught on the draw paths a bit, lost a couple tight and light and we actually did too as well. We learned [if] we put the broom in the right spots and we were making sure that we were hitting it and getting it to where we needed to be.”

“That was the difference,” he added.

Knapp returns to the Brier after winning the Tankard in 2023, although he also has one other Brier appearance as an alternate.

He finished fourth in his pool three years ago but failed to make the playoffs.

“This tankard was more of a grind than our last,” the skip said. “The experience showed a little bit more. The first time was a bit of a surprise but this year we just did a lot of things right.”

Knapp is joined by Jones, second Dustin Kidby and lead Mat Ring. Jones was the team’s third in 2023, while Kidby was an alternate.

This year will be Ring’s first Brier appearance.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” Ring told CTV News after the win. “First tankard final for myself. [I] really relied on the guys expertise and experience. It helped a lot.”

The skip says the experience of the 2023 Brier will be an asset for their team to have success.

“We’ll build off of what we learned in 2023,” he said. “I feel more prepared myself, too, and we can go and give it a good round of playoffs again.”

Two Saskatchewan teams will have a chance to break the province’s long Brier drought. Mike McEwen, out of the Nutana rink, pre-qualified for the national championship without needing to win a provincials.

Saskatchewan has not won a Brier since 1980.

“It’s certainly nice to have two teams there. It’s double the chance,” said Knapp. “But there’s no denying there’s amazing talent out there.”

“We can curl pretty high percentages. And if we play the way we can and get a few breaks, I’m going to love to see what happens,” he added.

The 2026 Montana’s Brier is set for Feb. 27 to March 8 in St. John’s, NL.

Campbell claims Pinnacle

Regina’s Team Campbell will wear the green jackets at the 2026 Scotties Tournament of Hearts after bringing home gold at the Bunge Prairie Pinnacle in Melville, Sask.

Led by skip Jolene Campbell, the Highland rink defeated fellow Regina curler Jana Tisdale in Sunday’s final 4-3.

It is Campbell’s second provincial title as a skip after winning the 2016 Pinnacle, but sixth Scotties after making three previous appearances as an alternate with Amber Holland. Campbell was also the third for Chelsea Carey’s rink in 2022 as a wild card team.

“It’s been ten years since I won that game,” the skip told reporters after the win. “That is a long damn time, so it feels really good.”

After blanking the first end, Tisdale was able to force Campbell to a single point in the second end.

Tisdale would add two after a couple of miscues from Team Campbell in the fourth.

Holding the final stone in the fifth end, Campbell attempted to split to score three. The rock sitting above the house would not catch the rings and she would settle for two but regain the lead.

Both teams would settle for blanks for three-straight ends before Tisdale would break through in the ninth.

With the hammer against three Campbell stones, Tisdale would draw to the button, tapping the yellow stone just far enough to tie the game at two heading into the final end.

“It’s a tough game and we went into that game wanting to be tied up with hammer coming home,” Campbell explained. “That was the plan. That’s where we thought we would be and we maneuvered the scoreboard to make it happen and it worked out.”

Needing just a single to win with hammer in the 10th, Campbell wouldn’t even have to throw her final stone after Tisdale ticked her own rock to give Campbell the victory.

“You’re obviously always ready,” Campbell said. “It feels good to make that last one, I’ve had to do that before. But to not have to throw it sounds just as good.”

Team Campbell finished with the second-best record through round robin play before handing Ashley Thevenot her first loss of the bonspiel in the 1-2 playoff game Saturday to earn a berth to Sunday’s championship.

Campbell says she knew going into the week her team had a good shot to lift the trophy at the end.

“We’ve had a good season and we’ve all been in this big final game before,” she said. “We know what it takes to get there. We know how to put yourself in the position that you’re in. Playoffs. So we felt really confident that we were going to be there.”

She is joined by third Robyn Silvernagle, second Rachel Big Eagle and lead Dayna Demmans.

“We work really, really well together,” third Robyn Silvernagle said. “[Jolene] is a great leader and we play off of her energy. All of us just worked really well as a unit and did our jobs really well and just played like a team.”

Silvernagle has three previous Scotties appearances (2019, 2020, 2023). Big Eagle has attended the national women’s curling championships twice in 2021 and 2022, both as an alternate.

Demmans has never appeared in a Scotties before.

The vice-skip says the gameplan at nationals will be same as it was here.

“One rock at a time, one game at a time,” Silvernagle said. “Do your process and the outcome is none of our business.”

“It’s just a game, a really important game, but it’s just something I’ve always been grounded with,” Campbell added. “It is still a curling game. It’s very meaningful to us but we feel like we do have a really good shot going in there.”

The 2026 Scotties Tournament of Hearts is slated to run from Jan. 23 Feb. 1, 2026 in Mississauga, Ont.