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Stoughton rink crashes in Halifax

By: Gary Lawless

Posted: 03/10/2010 4:07 PM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

HALIFAX — It all fell apart for Jeff Stoughton on Wednesday.

We could see the walls starting to crumble Tuesday night when Team Manitoba suffered a troubling loss to Alberta, and the whole structure came crashing down Wednesday with losses to Newfoundland and Ontario at the Brier.

Once the owners of a promising 5-1 mark with thoughts of playing on the weekend, Manitoba is in a freefall. Skip Jeff Stoughton made pointed remarks following Wednesday’s play.

"No one is making too many shots and when you curl like that you’re going to get your asses kicked like we just did," said Stoughton. "That’s the way it goes. We’re not putting eight shots in a row together at all. As the end goes on the shots get tougher and tougher. We’re trying to throw wicky-tickies and angle-doubles and raise-backs. That’s the name of the game, make the other guy throw all the tough shots."

Stoughton’s crew was out of sync in a 5-3 loss to Brad Gushue in the afternoon and then gave up four in the first against the perfect Glenn Howard Team Ontario in an 8-4 night defeat.

With the win Howard moved to 9-0 and guaranteed himself a spot in the 1-2 Page Playoff game while Stoughton dropped to 5-4 and now needs help to reach a tie-breaker, let alone the playoffs.
A tiebreaker on Friday is a stretch but not inconceivable. However, the way the Stoughton crew is going a playoff run of any magnitude is difficult to imagine.

Bad sweeping calls, unsettled strategy and poor shotmaking are victimizing Manitoba and anything short of a total turnaround will leave them out in the cold.

"We’re 5-4 now. You’d like to get to 7-4. We’ll play Nova Scotia in the morning and hopefully we’ll make more shots than them," said Stoughton. "We played really well at the Trials and we played pretty darn well at our provincial playdowns, but those are really the only two events where we’ve had any real consistency. You get what you put into the game and we haven’t put enough into it."
Manitoba third Kevin Park had a difficult day with shooting percentages of just 68 and 66 against big-time teams in Newfoundland and Ontario.

"I don’t know what happened with Kevin today," sighed Stoughton. "He struggled with his line and his draw weight. If you don’t get too many good shots from the setup guys, it makes it hard on the rest of the team."

Park, a former Brier champion with Kevin Martin of Alberta, admitted to struggling on a crucial day.

"I was on the wrong side of the inch all day. I’m throwing pretty good and not getting results," said Park. "If I don’t make the shots, Jeff’s shots are going to be twice as difficult and we both paid the price today. I don’t know how you explain it. Much like a golfer, you come out and have a pre-shot routine and you do the same thing before every shot. You have the focus. I guess each day a person’s vision changes or your balance, etc., etc. It’s a fine line. You just hope it comes back the next day."

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca

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