Top seeds prevail at curling championship

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This article was published 04/02/2015 (4200 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — The top seeds have all done their part so far on opening day of the 2015 Safeway Championship at the Keystone Centre.

Mike McEwen, the top-ranked curler in on the World Curling Tour and top seed here this week, ran over Fort Rouge’s Greg Mikolajek 10-1 in six ends this afternoon.

Defending champion and No. 2 seed Jeff Stoughton posted a 13-2 beat-down of Dauphin’s Roger Parker in this morning’s opening draw.

That game also lasted just six ends after Stoughton took a four on the fifth end and stole five in the sixth.

No. 3 Reid Carruthers of West St. Paul also played strongly, trouncing Dauphin’s Glenn Toews 11-4, while No. 4 William Lyburn of Granite thrashed Grant Brown of Thompson 12-3 and No. 6 Scott Ramsey of Granite dumped Merv Satterthwaite of St. Vital 9-6.

“Reasonably,” McEwen said, asked if his team started well in the 32-team provincials. “We had fun out there. We threw a lot of good draws. So it was kind of a nice get-to-know-the-ice and the building game.

“So all good things.”

The season’s most successful player to date was asked if such a walkover result does anything for him in the big picture.

“Probably on the smaller end,” he said. “We still try to get something out of that situation, being up a lot, trying to make precise shots even when we’re probably (unfocused) from what we’d normally be. That’s an interesting challenge, trying to be precise when your mind’s not tuned it as much as it would be, will be further down the line. It’s a good mental test.”

McEwen will meet Neepawa’s Kelly Robertson in a second-round game on Thursday at 12:15 p.m.

Stoughton, the 11-time provincial champion dismissed a suggestion his first game was too easy.

“No, the beginning was good because it was a fairly normal game,” Stoughton said. “We made some good shots to get a deuce and he (Parker) was trying to blank (the second) and stuck. We got our two, they got one, we got our two, they got one.

“And then we threw a guard up by mistake in the fifth end and we just said, ‘Ah, let’s just go for it,’ and we ended up getting a good four-ender.”

Stoughton resumes play Thursday at 12:15 p.m., when he meets Mark Lukowich’s Granite rink, skipped today by Steen Sigurdson. This morning, Sigurdson directed a 7-5 win over William Kuran, also of Granite.

In other opening-day action, Daniel Birchard’s rink, skipped by Neil Okumura, drilled Matt Dunstone’s foursome, skipped by Jason Gunnlaugson, 9-2. Okumura engineered steals of four and three to open the game, which was over in seven ends.

Daley Peters’ West Kildonan team spotted Manitou’s Steve Pauls a three on the first end but rallied to take a 10-6 victory, ending that game with a four on the ninth.

Trevor Loreth of Granite started off with four and posted an 9-6 win over Andy Stewart of Stonewall.

Kelly Marnoch of Carberry blasted Ryan Hyde of Portage 8-2.

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Richard Muntain prevailed 9-6 in 11 ends over Jerry Chudley of Neepawa when Chudley ran out of time and couldn’t throw his last hail-Mary rock.

The championship continues through the weekend, with the playoff round starting Friday night and concluding with Sunday’s 2:30 p.m. final.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca