Carruthers heading to Brier

Defeats McEwen 5-3 to win province

By: Paul Wiecek Posted: 5:37 PM CST Sunday, Feb. 8, 2015

BRANDON — Reid Carruthers will represent Manitoba at the Tim Hortons Brier in Calgary later this month.

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BRANDON — Reid Carruthers will represent Manitoba at the Tim Hortons Brier in Calgary later this month.

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This article was published 08/02/2015 (4112 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — Reid Carruthers will represent Manitoba at the Tim Hortons Brier in Calgary later this month.

Carruthers and his foursome — third Braeden Moskowy, second Derek Samagalski and lead Colin Hodgson — defeated hard-luck tale Mike McEwen 5-3 in the final of the Safeway Manitoba men’s curling championship here at Westman Place Sunday afternoon.

It is the fourth Manitoba men’s title for Carruthers — who won three previous titles as second for Jeff Stoughton. It is the second Manitoba title for Samagalski, who previously won as a lead for Rob Fowler in 2012. It is the first Manitoba title for Moskowy, but second trip to the Brier — he previously represented Saskatchewan. Hodgson will be competing in his first Brier.

Colin Corneau/Brandon Sun
Reid Carruthers might be flying under the radar with names such as Mike McEwen and Jeff Stoughton in the mix, but with a Brier and world championship under his belt, he is definitely in contention as the No. 3 seed. — Colin Corneau/Brandon Sun Reid Carruthers might be flying under the radar with names such as Mike McEwen and Jeff Stoughton in the mix, but with a Brier and world championship under his belt, he is definitely in contention as the No. 3 seed.

Sunday’s loss was a bitter — but familiar — result for McEwen. The top ranked team in the world after a sensational cash spiel season, McEwen is still looking for his first provincial men’s title after what was his fifth loss in a Manitoba men’s final since 2010.

McEwen has also lost a Manitoba semi-final and is easily the most accomplished active curler in Canada never to win a provincial men’s championship.

The loss to Carruthers was particularly hard to take for McEwen in that it came just hours after he’d vanquished his longtime nemesis at this event, Stoughton, in the semi-final. Three of McEwen’s previous losses in the final — and the previous loss in the semi-final — came at the hands of Stoughton and so a 6-4 victory over Stoughton in this morning’s semi-final seemed to bode well for McEwen heading into this afternoon’s final against a first-year Carruthers team.

But Carruthers — who had beaten McEwen in the 1 vs 1 game Saturday night to advance to today’s final — was equal to the task again. A tight 1-1 game was blown open with a Carruthers steal of three in the sixth end when McEwen was unable to hit the eight-foot with a tricky draw to the wings with the last rock of the end.