Stoughton one win away

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This article was published 12/03/2011 (5502 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LONDON, Ont. — Jeff Stoughton will play in his second final since 2009 at the Tim Hortons Brier Sunday night as he attempts to win Manitoba its first Canadian men’s curling championship in 12 years.

Stoughton drew the button cold with the last rock of the extra end to defeat Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue 7-6 Friday night to advance within one win of his third Brier championship — and first since 1999.

“It’s fricking unbelievable,” Stoughton said Friday night. “It’s the best feeling in the world. We did not want to play tomorrow. We get the day off, throw some rocks, have some fun and we cannot wait to play Sunday night. It’s going to be just awesome.”

Stoughton’s win in the Page playoff 1-2 game advances him straight to Sunday’s final, while Gushue will now get a second chance in tonight’s semifinal (TSN, 6:30 p.m.).

Who Gushue will play tonight must still be determined. Ontario’s Glenn Howard takes on Alberta’s Kevin Martin this afternoon (TSN, 1:30 p.m.) in the Page playoff 3-4 game, with the winner advancing to face Newfoundland.

With such a long break between games, Stoughton was asked if it will be hard to relax leading up to the big game.

“You kidding me? We’re not going to be able to eat, sleep, talk to anyone, throw rocks. It’s a long two days,” said Stoughton. “But we’re pretty loosey goosey so we’ll probably be OK.”

Indeed, it was loosey-goosey that may have won the night for Stoughton in a game where Gushue and his foursome made virtually everything for the first five ends and in which it would have been easy for Stoughton to have grown frustrated by his own inability early in the game to match Gushue shot for shot.

But with his team trailing 3-1 and Stoughton struggling mightily to find the impeccable form that got him to the 1-2 game, the Winnipeg skip took a break after the fourth end to have some fun.

With the game in a television break, Stoughton and Manitoba third Jon Mead ran across two sheets of ice to sweep a rock for the Brier mascot, Brier bear.

The two men, more or less and much to the crowd’s delight, put the Bear’s shot on the lid, just as Stoughton’s sweepers would later do for him in the extra end.

Mead high-fived the Bear, Stoughton low-fived him and then the two men got back to the task at hand.

It was a welcome respite on a tension-filled night, said Mead, who was the first to notice the Bear throwing rocks two sheets over.

“I want to have a lot of fun and enjoy this thing,” said Mead. “I can’t stay focused that long. I see something shiny and it pulls my attention away.”

Stoughton had to fight his way from behind all night long against Gushue and actually took his first lead of the game only in the ninth end when he stole one. That set the stage for the extra end dramatics.

“The guys put it right there. It’s just an absolute great feeling. Hats off to my guys for hanging in there and beating these guys,” said Stoughton.

Stoughton trailed 5-3 as late as the seventh end, but scored four of the game’s final five points with a deuce in the eighth end, a steal in the ninth end and then the single in the extra.

“It looked like every break in the book was going their way and we just had to keep battling back,” said Stoughton.

Manitoba simply wore Newfoundland down as the night unfolded, outshooting them 90-80 per cent as a team and with Stoughton owning the battle with Gushue at skip, also by a score of 90-80.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca