Carruthers, Jones lay down a Winnipeg double-whammy

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This article was published 05/12/2016 (3527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Reid Carruthers is bound for Ottawa, but first a stop in Las Vegas is on the agenda.

In a battle between former roommates, Carruthers got the better of Mark Nichols (Team Brad Gushue) as the Winnipeg skip’s tap for three in the ninth end led to an 8-5 victory in the Home Hardware Canada Cup of Curling men’s final Sunday evening at Westman Place in Brandon.

Carruthers and Nichols played on Jeff Stoughton’s front end for two seasons earlier this decade, but with berths in the 2017 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings Canadian Curling Trials field in the nation’s capital and next month’s World Financial Group Continental Cup in Las Vegas on the line, Carruthers was just a bit sharper.

For Carruthers, it’s the biggest win of his career as a skip. He also won the 2015 Safeway Championship, now known as the Viterra Championship, in Brandon.

“Winning the provincials was really big but this field, ho man, a tough field, I’m ecstatic,” he said. “I’m almost speechless to be honest.”

“We knew we had to play really good and it was just one big shot that changed the game, otherwise it could have gone either way.”

Carruthers, who was on Stoughton’s Canada Cup-winning team in 2012 in Moose Jaw, Sask., third Braeden Moskowy, second Derek Samagalski and lead Colin Hodgson earned $14,000 for the win, plus another $8,000 for the four round-robin wins they tallied.

Nichols, third Charley Thomas, who spared for the team this week in place of an injured Gushue, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker took home a total of $17,000.

Although they lead the CTRS points race and remain in a good position to earn their way to the Trials, Nichols was gutted by the loss.

“I’m pretty disappointed right now,” he said. “We left a lot on the table (Sunday) and we really, really wanted to win this event.”

Nichols appeared tentative in the early going. First, he rolled out on a hit attempt in the opening end and he was forced to draw for a single. Nichols then missed a double takeout in the second end that allowed Carruthers an open draw for two and a 2-1 lead

But after Carruthers nailed a runback to sit four in the third, Nichols found his resolve by finding a piece of the button for one point to tie the game at 2-2.

Carruthers had a chance for another deuce in the fourth end but needing the full four foot, his draw was heavy and only scored one.

The teams traded singles in the fourth and fifth ends and Carruthers could have taken the game by the horns in the sixth, however his shooter rolled out too much and he counted just two on the sideways tap for a 5-3 advantage.

Nichols responded in the seventh. He glued one on the lid of Carruthers’ stone with his first throw and after his old roommate couldn’t remove it, Nichols drew for two to score two and pull even once more.

Unfortunately for Nichols, his draw weight escaped him in the ninth end as he was heavy, allowing Carruthers the tap for three.

“I wouldn’t say it was just that shot,” Nichols said. “We left a few shots on the table through the whole game. We battled to get back in it and we kind of went all or nothing in that ninth end to really force or try to get a steal and my last one was too heavy and not good enough.”

Prior to Nichols’ last stone in nine, Carruthers played a long runback that removed a buried Team Gushue stone from the four foot to sit two.

“That shot there ensured that we were going to have a shot basically to win the game in the ninth end,” Moskowy said of the runback Carruthers nailed. “He makes that one and then it was just a matter of executing on the second, and as you saw, we were pretty pumped up after that one.”

Moskowy admitted he was exhausted after a long and arduous five days, but the victory capped an “insane week” for his team.

And they’re already looking into the future.

“If we legitimately want to go to the Olympics, we’ve got to win a big event,” Moskowy said, rehashing a conversation the team had after their first year together. “We won a Slam at the end of last year and now we’re one year out from the Trials and we won the biggest event there is (and) I can’t see the field being much different, there will be a couple more teams.”

Carruthers said the international experience of playing in the Continental Cup will also pay dividends moving forward but he believes playing Saturday was the biggest benefit to his team.

They eked past John Epping 6-5 in Saturday’s semifinal after Epping came back from a 5-1 deficit to force an extra end. The Torontonian won a three-team tiebreaker earlier that day.

 

Jones in top form

When it comes to big-time curling events in Manitoba, Jennifer Jones has simply been unbeatable.

Dating back to 2005, Jones has won the last six provincial women’s championships she’s entered, plus the 2013 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in Winnipeg that earned her a trip to the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

She won gold there, too.

Add a Home Hardware Canada Cup of Curling to the list.

A third-end steal of four for the 42-year-old Winnipeg skip gave her a 5-0 lead over defending champion Rachel Homan and she cruised the rest of the way to a 9-5 win Sunday afternoon at Westman Place.

In her record ninth Canada Cup appearance, Jones claimed her third title — she also won in 2007 and 2011 — to tie Stefanie Lawton for most titles in the event’s 13-year history.

“It’s one of the hardest, if not the hardest event to win, so it’s very significant,” Jones said. “You want to come out here and play well and it’s really hard to win this event and come out and play a good final against a great team. It’s pretty special, it’s right up there with winning the Scotties, for sure.”

Even without a berth in the 2017 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings Canadian Curling Trials at stake — Homan nabbed a spot with last year’s victory in Grande Prairie, Alta., while Jones earned her way there by winning last season’s CTRS points race after Canadian champion Chelsea Carey failed to medal at the world championship — there was still a spot at the 2017 World Financial Group Continental Cup in Las Vegas and $14,000 up for grabs.

Jones, along with third Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwen, beat Homan 9-4 when they faced off in the round robin Friday, using a bevy of workman-like shots to secure a direct path to the final. Homan beat Winnipeg’s Kerri Einarson 9-4 in Saturday’s semifinal after Einarson scored three in the 10th end of a tiebreaker earlier that morning to beat 2014 Canada Cup winner Val Sweeting 8-6.

Not many people expected Jones to knock off Homan so emphatically the second time.

Up 1-0 playing the third end, a series of misses by Team Homan led to Jones laying four ahead of the Ottawa skipper’s first throw. Homan played a perfect double tap to lie one but Jones responded by sticking a runback to lie four that left Homan with another long tap back she came up light on, allowing Jones to steal four and go up 5-0.

“We had a couple of opportunities that we took full advantage of and made Rachel make a really tough tap against four, which I wouldn’t have wanted to throw… fortunately for us she missed and it gave us a really big lead in the game,” Jones said.

— Brandon Sun

nliewicki@brandonsun.comTwitter: @liewicks