Brier turning into a family affair

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This article was published 14/02/2023 (1259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This year’s Brier is going to be a family affair.

After playing last week’s Manitoba men’s provincial curling championship in Neepawa as a three-man unit, Team Reid Carruthers — who came up short against Matt Dunstone in the final and must settle for a wild-card spot at this year’s nationals in London, Ont., (March 3-12) — revealed Monday that Rob Gordon will be joining the team out East and playing lead.

Gordon’s first cousin, Connor Njegovan, will move to second and help Carruthers call the shots as vice-skip while Derek Samagalski will throw third.

Carruthers has been down a man since parting ways with third Jason Gunnlaugson in December. He had the choice of any Manitoban who has not already qualified for the Brier with a different team. He also could’ve added an import player, but it only could’ve been an individual who hasn’t played in any provincial qualification events this season.

After weighing all the options, the 27-year-old Gordon — who plays lead for Braden Calvert — got the call.

“To be completely honest, I knew I obviously had a bias to the whole situation and wanted to bring in Rob, so, I stayed out of it,” admitted Njegovan on Tuesday.

“Reid was actually the one who brought it up to me and once he did, I was obviously on board. I’m never going to turn down playing a Brier with my cousin. I kind of just took a step back and let Reid process the situation and decide what he thought was best.”

The last time Njegovan, 3o, and Gordon played together competitively was a Manitoba Junior Curling Tour event. Teaming up has never been in the cards since they both play the same position, but with Njegovan and Samagalski feeling comfortable in new roles, the door was open to bringing in a lead. While the cousins from Winnipeg aren’t used to being teammates, they’re no strangers to being at the rink together as Njegovan is married to Selena Njegovan and Gordon is dating Kristin MacCuish. Selena and MacCuish have curled together for more than a decade and currently play for Kaitlyn Lawes.

“I’ve kind of always been the younger cousin trying to follow in his footsteps. I was sort of a late bloomer to the sport of curling, especially for the Gordon family, so once I picked it up, I saw all the things he accomplished,” Gordon said.

“He won the Manitoba junior title in 2010 and lost the Canadian junior final that year and ever since, it was my goal to do the same and I was fortunate enough to do that in 2016 winning both the Manitoba and Canadian juniors. And obviously with him going to a few Briers, that’s been my goal to get there as well. It’s different circumstances, but now I get to play in one and alongside him, which will be pretty special.”

Gordon had a strong showing at provincials as he helped Calvert reach the 1 vs. 1 Page playoff game where they lost 7-4 to Carruthers. Calvert had to settle for a third-place finish — the best result the team has ever had at the event— after losing 8-4 to Dunstone in Sunday morning’s semifinal.

Dunstone only lost once last week and it was to Calvert before the championship round.

“Every young curler in Canada dreams of curling in the Brier. Obviously, it would’ve been nice to go with my Team Calvert guys, but getting the opportunity to play with Reid’s team who have all been there multiple times before is going to be a good experience. I’m going to learn a lot and it’s going to be a lot of fun,” said Gordon, an alternate for Gunnlaugson at the 2022 Brier.

“I’m incredibly humbled to be selected to play with those guys.”

Matt Lorenz, who was on the team’s roster at provincials but didn’t play, is the alternate.

Despite being shorthanded, Carruthers, Samagalski and Njegovan played at a high level in Neepawa before their run ended in heartbreak. They were clinging onto a 7-5 lead heading into the 10th end before Dunstone spoiled their run and scored three to snatch the Buffalo jackets out of their hands. The turning point in the final frame came on Samagalski’s second shot when Njegovan burned the rock as it was heading towards the house, forcing it to be removed from play.

“I think it’s just one of those things where it’s just sports, right? Whether it’s hockey, football or anything, sometimes different things happen,” said Njegovan.

“We saw it in the Super Bowl where (the Philadelphia Eagles) were called for holding at the end and lost the Super Bowl, right? So, things happen and obviously it’s unfortunate and you don’t want that to happen, but the reality of playing a sport is there’s ups and downs and you can’t control everything.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31