Final eight decided in Manitoba men’s championship

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This article was published 06/02/2015 (4201 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — The eight-team playoff field is set here at the Safeway Manitoba men’s championship.

Reid Carruthers, Evan Martin, Matt Dunstone and Jared Kolomaya were all winners in B-side qualifying games late Friday afternoon to advance to the weekend playoff round, which begins Friday evening.

Carruthers defeated Granite’s Scott Ramsay 8-4; Martin defeated Pinawa’s Richard Muntain 8-6; Dunstone beat West Kildonan’s Daley Peters 8-3; and Stonewall’s Jared Kolomaya defeated Fort Rouge’s Kyle Foster 8-3.

Those four teams will now join the four A-side qualifiers — Jeff Stoughton, Mike McEwen, Braden Calvert and Kelly Marnoch — who all qualified for the playoffs earlier Friday.

The opening round of the playoffs, which begins at 7:45 p.m., will see Stoughton play Carruthers, Marnoch play Dunstone, Calvert play Kolomaya and McEwen play Martin.

Third seed Carruthers had earlier stayed alive with an 8-2 victory over Trevor Loreth 8-2.

Fifth seed Sean Grassie, meanwhile, is now out of the bonspiel after a rare 12-end loss to Evan Martin that Grassie won’t forget anytime soon.

After giving up a game-tying steal to Martin in the 10th end, Grassie blanked the 11th end when he elected to hit — and subsequently rolled out — instead of simply drawing the 8-foot with the last rock of the extra end. That forced a 12th end and Grassie was heavy with a draw to the four-foot, handing another steal and an unlikely 9-8 win to Martin.

Put it altogether and Grassie, the 2013 Manitoba men’s runner-up, had three shots to beat Martin in each of the last three ends — and he missed all three of them. Martin advanced to a B-side qualifier with the win.

Earlier Friday, Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton and Mike McEwen were both winners of their A-side qualifying games to advance to tonight’s playoffs.

Stoughton advanced with an 8-4 win over Peters, while McEwen thrashed Kolomaya 8-1 in just 5 ends to advance.

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McEwen and Stoughton are the first and second seeds respectively at this event and have met each other in the final of this event three times since 2010. Stoughton — an 11-time Manitoba men’s champioon — won all three times over McEwen, who is looking for his Manitoba title here this weekend after a dominating cash spiel season.

Also advancing to the playoff round with A-side wins Friday morning were reigning two-time Canadian junior champion  Calvert and fellow Carberrian Marnoch. Calvert advanced with a 9-6 win over Muntain, while Marnoch advanced with a 10-7 win over Ramsay.

Marnoch and Calvert are both from nearby Carberry, which should do wonders for ticket sales here this weekend at Westman Communications Group Place.

email: paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek​