McEwen, Stoughton winners of afternoon draws at curling championship

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This article was published 05/02/2015 (4219 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — The top two seeds, Mike McEwen and defending champ Jeff Stoughton, have sailed through the first two rounds of the Safeway Championship at the Keystone Centre.

This morning, Nos. 3, 4 and 5 weren’t so fortunate and now have the long route to the playoff round that starts on Friday night.

McEwen dusted off veteran Kelly Robertson of Neepawa 7-3 over nine ends this afternoon to move to 2-0.

Stoughton did the same, stopping Mark Lukowitch’s team skipped by Steen Sigurdson to the tune of 7-1 in seven ends.

The top-ranked pair, along with two-time Canadian Junior champ Braden Calvert of Deer Lodge, are all in a great spot with victories in their first two games. They’ll play in Friday morning’s draw to earn one of the eight playoff berths available for this weekend.

Today’s morning draw was far more eventful, and Calvert, who captured his second straight national junior title last weekend in Newfoundland and Labrador, helped write that story.

He dropped No. 5 seed Sean Grassie of Deer Lodge 7-3.

Reid Carruthers of West St. Paul, the event’s No. 3 seed, also faltered this morning, wrecking on his final hit attempt for the win. He lost 6-4 to Carberry’s Kelly Marnoch.

Meanwhile Pinawa’s Richard Muntain also moved to 2-0, upsetting No. 4 seed William Lyburn of Granite, 9-4.

Grassie, Lyburn and Carruthers are on the ice late this afternoon, now on the B side and needing three wins to reach a playoff berth.

“I think they’re a long way from being done,” Stoughton, the 11-time Manitoba champ, said today about high seeds struggling. “And that was sort of a reminder for us that you can get beat at any time. You always have to be on your game and ready to go. Just like this one. It wasn’t like we were walking away with it early.

“Off it went and I don’t expect those (guys) to lose again but you never know.”

He encountered a conservative game against Lukowitch’s Granite rink until excellent play led to a steal of three in the sixth end.

McEwen had to play nine ends to dispose of the veteran Robertson.

“We’re kind of … it’s early in the event so we’re still getting into a bit of a groove but I like what I see so far,” the World Curling Tour’s top-ranked player said.

McEwen said he wasn’t concerning himself much about some name rinks stumbling today.

“I don’t think it’s an advantage yet because I think probably most of those guys will get through on the B (side),” McEwen said. “Until they’re not in the competition, then it’s probably not an advantage.”

Also at 2-0 are Daley Peters, who plays Stoughton on Friday, Granite’s Scott Ramsay, who will meet Marnoch, and Stonewall’s Jard Kolomaya, who will play McEwen.

Muntain and Calvert meet in Friday’s other match-up of 2-0 teams.

Calvert, 19, had to scramble back from the country’s far east after Sunday’s victory in the junior and said after his first win Wednesday he and his teammates were feeling a bit sluggish.

Today, though, they had Grassie on the run most of the way, opening a 5-1 lead after five ends.

“Yeah, the guys came out and we were a lot more comfortable today with the ice,” Calvert said. “We knew it a lot better. We just made a lot of shots today.

“It’s exciting to know we have a chance to qualify tomorrow. We’ve already maybe exceeding more expectations that we had put out for ourselves. It’s pretty exciting.

“We tried to just come in here with a pretty humble attitude and let our skills speak for themselves. Right now we’re just playing really well. We like how it’s going.”

The 2-0 teams will get two chances to qualify for the playoffs.

Starting 2-0 is helpful, Calvert said, given the energy that was expended win the Canadian Junior last week.

“It kind of cozies us into competition instead of having to play two in one day maybe,” he said. “We’re getting our legs back and the sweepers are starting to sweep a little bit harder at the end there and it’s exciting to know that we have a chance tomorrow.”

The shocker of the morning draw was probably Carruthers’ final-shot miss.

He was down 5-4 after nine ends, but had the hammer, and had the final end setting up well.

Marnoch finally made a hit to sit shot near the four-foot circle, but his rock was mostly exposed. Carruthers just needed to move that rock and could have scored three if he stayed around. But instead, his rock curled too much, wrecking on the only guard in play, leaving Marnoch the steal of one and the win.

“I knew how much it was going to curl but I just didn’t throw it well enough,” said the No. 3 seed. “I might have started it a little bit so I helped it curl more a bit more than what it should have.

“It wasn’t very good out there. We missed too many shots and they played well and we didn’t deserve to win. We hung in there and had a chance to win. We just can’t do that again. Now we just have to have to start winning.

“For the next half-hour, then we have to regroup. We can’t sit and dwell on the loss. We have to suck it up and make more more shots.”

 

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca