Two more losses finish Manitoba

Carruthers misses playoffs with dreadful day at Brier

By: Paul Wiecek Posted: 11:59 PM CST Thursday, Mar. 5, 2015

CALGARY — Reid Carruthers has joined a small club no one wants to belong to — Manitoba skips who failed to make the Brier playoffs.

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CALGARY — Reid Carruthers has joined a small club no one wants to belong to — Manitoba skips who failed to make the Brier playoffs.

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CALGARY — Reid Carruthers has joined a small club no one wants to belong to — Manitoba skips who failed to make the Brier playoffs.

Carruthers lost his two games at the Tim Hortons Brier Thursday — falling 8-7 at night to Alberta after an 8-7 loss earlier in the day to Ontario.

The losses gave Manitoba a 4-6 record heading into the final draw of the round robin this morning and mathematically eliminated them from playoff contention.

Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press
Manitoba skip Reid Carruthers examines a shot during curling action against Ontario at the Brier in Calgary, Thursday. — Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press Manitoba skip Reid Carruthers examines a shot during curling action against Ontario at the Brier in Calgary, Thursday.

The loss to Alberta that formally eliminated Manitoba came on the last rock of the tenth end when Carruthers came up light on a draw to the eight-foot and gave up a game-winning steal. Carruthers was inconsolable in defeat and took full responsibility.

“That was brutal,” said Carruthers. “This whole week was tough. It was an absolute grind out there. We were losing games we could have won and playing well but not well enough.

“This is the absolute worst feeling. I feel terrible.”

Manitoba’s problems began earlier in the day with a loss to an Ontario team that had lost five straight games.

The loss to a slumping Ontario team was typical of the week for Carruthers, whose foursome — third Braeden Moskowy, second Derek Samagalski and lead Colin Hodgson — were unable to find traction in what was the first Brier for the first-year team but fourth for a skip who previously curled second for Jeff Stoughton.

In the end, a 0-2 start to the Brier that was the worst start for a Manitoba team since 2003 was book-ended by a sluggish finish that saw Manitoba lose four of its last five games heading into a final meaningless encounter this morning with P.E.I. (4-6).

It wasn’t the start or finish this team had envisioned for itself on Canadian curling’s biggest stage. They beat arguably the best team in the world this season — Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen — twice in the Manitoba provincials, including in the final, to advance to this event and believed they were on equal footing with the rest of a deep field, even if many prognosticators weren’t giving them much chance.

In the end, of course, it was the pundits who were right. While the Manitobans didn’t curl badly — their 88 per cent team shooting percentage heading into Thursday night was tied for second in the entire field — they were victimized over and again by small mistakes their opponents seized upon.

Carruthers — who was eighth in shooting percentage among skips — took the blame. “I think the guys played well but I think I missed a couple of key draws. I didn’t have my draw weight as good as I needed to have it and a couple of key points cost us.”

The Carruthers foursome becomes the first Manitoba team to miss the Brier playoffs since 2010 and just the fourth since 2005.

Meanwhile, the Brier playoff picture is now three-quarters in focus. Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs (10-1) will play Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue (9-2) tonight in the 1-2 game, while Team Canada’s John Morris (7-4) will play in Saturday’s 3 vs 4 game.

Saskatchewan at 6-4 could clinch fourth place with a win today over B.C. (5-5). A Saskatchewan loss would force tiebreakers with B.C. and Quebec. Alberta could also finish at 6-5 with a win today and potentially join the tiebreaker fray.

Carruthers was still mathematically alive heading into Thursday night’s game against Alberta — but only barely. Having dropped to 4-5 with the loss earlier in the day, Carruthers needed to win his final two round-robin games while Saskatchewan had to lose its final two games in order to force a playoff tiebreaker.

Saskatchewan did its part in losing to Ontario 8-7 in an extra end Thursday night, but Carruthers simply could not hold up his end of the deal with a win over Alberta.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek