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Burtnyk named top seed at provincials

By: Paul Wiecek

Posted: 02/12/2009 1:32 PM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Top seed skip Kerry Burtnyk speaks at a press conference announcing the top seeded teams in the 2009 Safeway Championship which will take place Wednesday, Feb. 18 to Sunday, Feb. 22 at the Selkirk Recreation Centre. (WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Winnipeg’s Kerry Burtnyk has been annointed the favourite to win next week’s Manitoba men’s provincial curling championship.

Burtnyk, a five-time Manitoba men’s champion, two-time Canadian champion and the 1995 world champion, was announced this morning as the top seed for the Safeway Championship in Selkirk, Feb. 18-22.

Burtnyk said the top seeding is complimentary, but won’t mean much on the ice next week.

"It doesn’t matter at all," Burtnyk said. "The only thing number one or two does is place you in the draw. And just glancing at the draw, there’s a lot of good teams in our group and I’m sure there’s a lot of good teams in every group.

"The nice part of number one in this case is it’s going to get us a later draw in the day so we don’t have to start early in the morning, which is nice."

Burtnyk is followed by another former world champion, Jeff Stoughton, as the second seed. The third seed is young upstart Mike McEwen, who’s being hailed in advance of the event as a legitimate threat to knock off Manitoba’s two curling powerhouses in Selkirk.

After McEwen, the top 10 seeds go like this: Peter Nicholls, Deer Lodge; Reid Carruthers, West Kildonan; David Bohn, Assiniboine-Memorial; Allan Lyburn, Brandon; Terry McNamee, Brandon; Daley Peters, Beausejour; and Dave Boehmer, Petersfield.

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