Fond memories, fierce competition

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This article was published 01/03/2018 (2776 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Reid Carruthers has been to Regina’s Brandt Centre before — six years and 11 months ago, to be exact.

The stakes were through the stratosphere then, too.

Carruthers was pitching second stones for acclaimed Winnipeg curler Jeff Stoughton at the world men’s curling championship, and the Charleswood crew was as near to perfect as any team can be.

After posting a 10-1 record through the round-robin (a one-point loss to Norway was the lone blemish), Stoughton swept past Scotland’s Tom Brewster not once, but twice, in the playoffs to secure global supremacy on the ice.

 

For Carruthers, representing his country in 2011 in front of thousands of spectators in a Prairie city — the heartland of curling — remains one of the highlights of his career.

“(This) building holds great memories for me, obviously,” Carruthers recalled. “That was the first time I played for Canada, so to wear the red and white in front of the Saskatchewan fans was unbelievable. I believe every one of our draws was sold out. I remember walking out in the final. It’s not a huge place but those 6,000 people were packed in and cheering. It was like thunder in your chest, just absolutely incredible.”

He yearns for a chance to share those extraordinary moments with his current teammates, but there’s a tall order of business that needs executing beforehand.

Carruthers skips his West St. Paul team of third Braeden Moskowy, second Derek Samagalski and lead Colin Hodgson into battle at the 2018 Canadian men’s championship Saturday. The squad is coached by Dan Carey, a Brier champion with skip Vic Peters in ’92 in the very same Regina arena.

Carruthers won the Manitoba title in early February in Winkler — ending the two-year run of Mike McEwen’s Fort Rouge foursome — to earn the opportunity to compete at his second Brier in four years. He owns five Purple Hearts, including three won while playing with Stoughton and a pair now as a skip.

 

The 16-team field comprises winners from 10 provinces, three territories and the region of Northern Ontario, plus Team Canada (defending champion Brad Gushue of St. John’s N.L.) and the survivor of Friday night’s wild-card game. Teams are seeded using the Canadian Team Ranking System and divided into pools of eight.

Team Manitoba begins its quest Saturday at 2 p.m. against four-time Brier participant Eddie MacKenzie of Prince Edward Island in Pool B round-robin play.

Carruthers is one of about six teams with a legitimate chance to stick around to the end. The good money’s also on Gushue, 2014 Olympic gold medallist Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario, either Mike McEwen or Jason Gunnlaugson — both of Winnipeg, who meet in tonight’s wild-card game — Ontario’s John Epping and Steve Laycock of Saskatchewan, to make a strong push for the four-team Page playoffs.

Manitoba is ranked second, behind only Team Canada.

“We’re hoping to stay a little under the radar because people are going to be looking at teams like Jacobs and Gushue, and then we’ll make our way to the final and win it,” Carruthers said with a grin. “There’s definitely something to prove.

“We were all disappointed with how we performed under the lights in Calgary. We enjoyed ourselves there. But we treat curling like our jobs. It’s a business to us, and you wouldn’t want to fail in a work setting. So, we want to be successful.”

At the 2015 Brier in Calgary, Carruthers’ team, in its first year together, combined for an impressive 88 per cent shooting accuracy, second only to Kevin Koe of Alberta. But glossy statistics meant little as they finished with a disappointing 4-7 record to miss the playoffs.

 

The Brier champ will don the Maple Leaf at the worlds, March 31-April 8 in, wait for it… Las Vegas, baby.

Carruthers, 33, said he’s blessed to guide one of the world’s best squads — he’s not just tossing out a whole lot of bluster, either. The team is ranked sixth on the World Curling Tour’s order of merit. The squad, always in the hunt on the Grand Slam circuit, was one of just nine teams to participate in the Canadian Olympic Trials in Ottawa back in December.

Carruthers said the Hodgson-Samagalski combination is deadly accurate on the front end, keenly adept at judging rock speed, and they’re both phenomenal sweepers.

Both are relatively mild-mannered like their skipper, leaving Moskowy, a big man in his own right, to bring the fire.

This is a special week for Moskowy, 27, who lives and works in Regina.

He’s the import on the Carruthers quartet and should have a large contingent of fans pulling for him — quietly, mind you, because Laycock will be getting most of the love.

“I’m sure everyone has their bucket list of things you want to do in curling, and playing in a Brier at home is definitely high up there on mine,” he said. “It might be a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so I’m ecstatic.

“It’s a great opportunity for a lot of reasons. We weren’t off the ice for five minutes in Winkler and we were already talking about our goals for the Brier. Obviously, none of were happy with last time and a bit embarrassed. It was a great learning experience but there’s unfinished business.”

Samagalski earned his first buffalo crest in 2012 playing lead for Brandon’s Rob Fowler and also skipped a Gimli team to a victory at the provincial mixed playdowns last year.

He said there’s nothing commonplace about gunning to be the best in Canada.

“Especially with Manitoba being so deep, it’s such a hard province to win, so it never gets old,” said Samagalski, 33. “There’s just so much pride that comes with it and having all of Manitoba cheering for you.”

 

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell