Sometimes it just seems like a dream.

Kerry Burtnyk has seen the pictures. He's looked at the young man in the photographs and wondered if that really was him?

Burtnyk was just 22 years, four months old _ the youngest skip ever _ when he led Manitoba to the championship of the 1981 Brier at Halifax. His team of Mark Olson, Jim Spencer and Ron Kammerlock defeated Al Hackner of Northern Ontario 5-4 in the final.

"It is quite something to realize that was 27 years ago and here I am back playing in the Brier again,'' said Burtnyk, who is skipping Manitoba at the Canadian men's curling championships this week. "I don't think at that time we really understood what we had done. We were really excited about it and it was fantastic.

"I think when you are that young, you feel bullet proof. You figure you're going back here every year. It was a few years later when I think we realized exactly what we had done.''

Burtnyk returns to this year's Brier after surviving a battle with cancer. In a twist, the third on his rink Dan Kammerlock is the son of Ron Kammerlock, the lead for his 1981 championship team.

Burtnyk won the 1995 Brier and world championships. This will be his first time back at the biggest show in Canadian curling since losing the 2001 final in Ottawa to Alberta's Randy Ferbey.

His competitive fire showed in the biggest fight of his life. He underwent two surgeries in three years to remove a cancerous lump from his scalp.

During the second operation, an eight-hour procedure in 2001, doctors cleaned out the tissue on the top of Burtnyk's head, replaced it with an thin layer of muscle from his back, then covered it all with a skin graft from the back of his leg.

The experience has changed his view on life and curling.

"It puts things in perspective,'' said Burtnyk. "This is just a game.

"I love to play the game and I love to try to win, but it is just a game. At the end of the day your health, your family, is much more important than any curling game.''

Dan Kammerlock wasn't even born when his father won the Brier. He was shocked when Burtnyk asked him to join his rink two years ago.

"I realized in a hurry this was the opportunity of a lifetime,'' said Kammerlock, 24, a kinesiology student at the University of Winnipeg. "It's been pretty great ever since we started.''

Burtnyk was looking for an injection of new blood when he assembled his rink of Kammerlock, Richard Daneault, 31, and Garth Smith, 38. Kammerlock was an important building block.

"I wanted to try something different, get some young guys,'' he said. "I had the opportunity to meet Dan a few times because I knew his dad.

"I was very impressed, not only with his curling ability, but his is a good young man off the ice.''

While a quarter century separates the skip and his third, the two have managed to make it work.

"At first it was a little different,'' admitted Burtnyk. "In this game of curling, one of the interesting things is people of all ages seem to come together and get along.

"We travel a lot together and we have all kinds of laughs on the road. You'd never know there is such an age gap most of the time.''

Kammerlock said his father was pleased to see his son follow in his footsteps.

"He's a man of very little words,'' he said. "Sometimes you can just tell when he's pretty happy about something.

"He may not express it verbally but you can tell.''

Playing in the Brier is a dream come true for Kammerlock.

"It's pretty special, regardless of whether my dad has been there or not,'' he said. "I think every curler grows up dreaming of curling in the Brier.

"If they don't dream of playing in the Brier, maybe they shouldn't be curling.''

Playing with Burtnyk has also been a great learning experience.

"He's very knowledgeable,'' Kammerlock said. "You try to be a sponge and just soak it all in.''

For Burtnyk, playing before a home-town crowd at the MTS Centre this week is special.

"I've had a chance to play in a few Briers but I've never played in one at home,'' said the 49-year-old father of two girls. "To be able to play in front of the fans that have cheered me on for the last 30 years, and at the same time have a chance to maybe do well, is an exciting opportunity.''