Up-and-comers must earn their crown
They show promise, Burtnyk says
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/02/2010 (5927 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
STEINBACH — As he launched his attempt to earn a fifth Safeway Provincial Men’s Curling Championship with a 7-3 win over Springfield’s Kevin Larson Wednesday afternoon, Kerry Burtnyk acknowledged that he could feel the wave of young curlers rising.
"I’ve certainly felt them breathing down my neck for quite awhile, actually," said the Assiniboine Memorial skip. "Every year, the same kind of stories come up, and you know at some point in time that story is going to be a bigger story. Is it this year? I really don’t know."
Other second-round games saw Dauphin’s Peter Prokopowich defeat David Bohn of Assiniboine 9-7, Sean Grassie of Deer Lodge beat Morris’s David Hamblin 10-8, Doug Riach of West Kildonan defeat Randy Neufeld of LaSalle 9-6, and Reid Carruthers of West St. Paul defeat Heather’s Andrew Irving 5-4.
Burtnyk, a two-time Canadian champion who is seeded third here, tipped his hat to such teams as Assiniboine Memorial’s No. 2-seed Mike McEwen, who won his first-round game 10-1 over Pilot Mound’s Curtis McCannell, fourth seed Reid Carruthers of West St. Paul, and fifth seed Jason Gunnlaugson.
Gunnlaugson stopped Wayne Ewasko of the Heather 8-2 in the third round. Other third-round games saw Brendan Taylor of West Kildonan defeat Burntwood’s Travis Graham 7-0 in six ends, Dave Boehmer of Petersfield lost 9-4 to Flin Flon’s Murray Woodward and Granite’s Bob Sigurdson defeated Brent Scales of Swan River 6-4.
"The young guys are really good teams," Burtnyk said. "There are a number here who are really solid. Our team and Jeff’s (defending champion Stoughton) team are pretty solid too. If we all have a good week, it will make for some exciting curling, and we’ll see what happens."
Stoughton, and his Charleswood crew of third Kevin Park, second Rob Fowler and third Steve Gould, breezed through their third-draw game 8-2 against Fort Rouge’s Jim Kirkness.
As good as the young turks are, Burtnyk isn’t sure they’ve made it yet, and declined to predict who might be the one to rise to the top.
"I’m not sure there are any dark horses here. We know all the young guys here really well, but I don’t think there is going to be a whole lot of surprises. I think there will be some good, solid curling, and I think when it gets down to it, a lot of the teams that people would expect to be around, will be.
"Right now, there’s a lot of promise there," Burtnyk continued. "But right now, it is just promise. They have to continue on before you know if it is a new guard coming on."
Stoughton took advantage of his eight-end win and practised a few shots before packing it in for the day. "You don’t get to throw that many variation of shots when you get up early (on the opponent), so I just wanted to throw a few nice weight hits and get comfortable with the ice, so it was good."
Stoughton said he was pleased with the way things went in their first game. "The guys played well, and capitalized on their mistakes, and that was sort of the outcome that we should pull off."
On his opening-round win, Burtnyk said, "this certainly was the result I was looking for, but more importantly, I was hoping that we’d come out fresh and get off to a good start and make some good shots. I thought my guys (third Don Walchuk, second Rich Daneault and third Garth Smith) played quite sharp for the first game into the event. That is really encouraging, and hopefully we can build from here."
In yesterday’s opening draw, Pembina’s Dave Kraichy stole two in the 11th end to defeat William Lyburn of Brandon 9-7.
In other first round games, Dave Elias of West Kildonan knocked off Kelly Marnoch of Carberry 10-5, Mike McEwen of Assiniboine Memorial hammered Pilot Mound’s Curtis McCannell 10-1 in five ends, West Kildonan’s Andrew Wickman edged Terry McNamee of Hamiota 5-3, and Deloraine’s Murray Warren defeated Allan Lyburn of Brandon 8-3.
"We got a lucky break at the end there," said Kraichy as he walked off the ice at the T.C. Smith Centre. "We left him a draw to the four foot, so we were pretty fortunate."
allan.besson@freepress.mb.ca
