Wiebe does it again, downs Gunnlaugson at Viterra

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This article was published 12/02/2022 (1316 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ryan Wiebe did it again.

For the second Viterra championship in a row, Wiebe’s Fort Rouge rink upset Jason Gunnlaugson to advance to the tournament’s final eight.

In a back-and-forth affair Friday morning at Selkirk Curling Club, the 21-year-old Wiebe escaped with a 5-4 victory over the defending champions out of Morris Curling Club.

“We’re super excited moving forward. That was a big game for us,” Wiebe said. “Even if we didn’t end up winning, we just played so solid the whole game. No matter what we were going to come out of that game feeling good. But yeah, we’re pumped moving forward.”

Wiebe had the hammer in the 10th end, but the game ended on a sour note with Gunnlaugson’s final shot getting picked.

“They played great. He was making everything, Ryan himself and the team,” Gunnlaugson said.

“We probably would’ve needed a miss anyway, but we could’ve put some nice pressure on him and given ourselves a chance but it happens.”

There’s no need for Gunnlaugson to panic, though. After losing to Wiebe in 2020 (the Viterra was cancelled last year owing to the pandemic), Gunnlaugson went on to win every game en route to being crowned the provincial champion. Gunnlaugson bounced back Friday afternoon with an 8-4 win over J.T. Ryan on the B side to secure a playoff spot.

The 2020 Viterra didn’t have a happy ending for Wiebe as he went on to lose three straight. This time around, he believes his team is more prepared to build off of early success.

“A couple years ago when we made the playoffs, we were maybe a little bit startled. It’s a little bit of a bigger stage… But we’re a bit more calm going into this playoff,” said Wiebe.

The playoffs kicked off Friday night with Wiebe taking on Granite’s William Lyburn, Gunnlaugson meeting Winnipeg Beach’s Colton Lott, West St. Paul’s Mike McEwen squaring off against Fort Garry’s Corey Chambers. and a battle between two foursomes from Assiniboine with Braden Calvert going up against Jacques Gauthier. The games wrapped up after the press deadline.

McEwen down a man

Mike McEwen, third Reid Carruthers, and second Derek Samagalski had to work extra hard on Friday.

A nagging injury to lead Colin Hodgson is forcing McEwen to play with three players. Hodgson played in the team’s opening game on Thursday morning, but he’s battling through some micro tears in a leg muscle and couldn’t hit the ice Friday.

“It’s something that’s taking a long, long time to heal. He has seen a doctor and he’s trying to manage it for now, but I’m not sure what that looks like for the rest of this event,” McEwen said.

“Hopefully, he can get it under control to where he’s comfortable enough to play, but obviously we don’t want him to force the issue and cause any further damage. By the sounds of it, the type of injury, he should be OK, it’s just whether he can actually manage the pain to play.”

McEwen managed to beat Jacques Gauthier 4-2 in the morning without Hodgson. The first five ends were scoreless before McEwen finally took a point in the sixth. Gauthier dusted himself off in the afternoon with a win over Justin Richter in a ‘B’ qualifier.

This isn’t the first time McEwen had to rally without Hodgson as the team had to play without him at the ATB Banff Classic in December.

“The sweeping and the communication is the biggest challenge. Colin is an integral part of our team with mapping out the ice and the weights,” said McEwen. “Fortunately, our last event in Banff, we played with three players, Derek, Reid, and I. At least it was something we were prepared for in case this injury kind of came up so I guess we’ve got some comfortability with it.”

The action continues today in Selkirk at 9 a.m. The final takes place on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31