Manitoba needs fantastic finish

Carruthers 3-3 after loss to N. Ontario

By: Paul Wiecek Posted: 3:00 AM CST Wednesday, Mar. 4, 2015

CALGARY -- Reid Carruthers has always been one of those curlers who performs best with his back to the wall and hair on fire.

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CALGARY -- Reid Carruthers has always been one of those curlers who performs best with his back to the wall and hair on fire.

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This article was published 04/03/2015 (4095 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALGARY — Reid Carruthers has always been one of those curlers who performs best with his back to the wall and hair on fire.

Well, that wall behind the Manitoba skip this morning is made of concrete and his hair is now a five-alarm blaze after a split at the Brier Tuesday — Manitoba beat Northwest Territories 11-3 in the morning, but were drummed 7-2 by Northern Ontario Tuesday night — put Manitoba’s record at 3-3 heading into today.

With three losses already and five more round-robin games still to play — including a tilt against local favourite Kevin Koe of Alberta Thursday night — Carruthers will need to run the table, or close to it, from this point in order to ensure a place in the weekend playoff round.

Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press
Manitoba skip Reid Carruthers delivers a rock during a 7-2 loss to Northern Ontario Tuesday night. — Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press Manitoba skip Reid Carruthers delivers a rock during a 7-2 loss to Northern Ontario Tuesday night.

Even one more Manitoba loss this week could be one too many at an event where a round-robin record of 7-4 has in many years been insufficient to qualify a team to play beyond the round robin.

All of which is to say things just got very real for Carruthers at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

“I’m not worried about it. I’m not going to lose any sleep about it,” Carruthers insisted Tuesday night. “We’ve played really good the last three games. Tonight, I think we came out flat at the start and I felt like we played good down the stretch. But we have to chat about our start and what we did wrong and go from there.”

Manitoba had won three in a row heading into their game last night against the defending Olympic gold medallists Sault Ste. Marie, but fell behind 4-0 after just two ends and looked overmatched against a Jacobs team that has been much the best here since Draw 1.

“We really didn’t give Reid’s team much of a chance there,” Jacobs said of his team’s quick start.

The good news for Carruthers is he’s not unaccustomed to the desperate position in which he finds himself. His squad — third Braeden Moskowy, second Derek Samagalski and lead Colin Hodgson — lost their second game of the Manitoba provincials in Brandon last month only to rally and rattle off seven straight victories, including a win over Jeff Stoughton and two over Mike McEwen, en route to a provincial title.

So — been there, done that. The question now is can they do it again?

“I know 3-3 isn’t great,” said Moskowy, “but if you’d told me we’d be 3-3 after our 0-2 start, I would have taken that.

“We’re OK. We just have to put together a good day tomorrow and we’ll be back in a good position… This is a team that’s definitely got no quit in it, as you saw in us coming back from 0-2. We got ourselves back to 3-3 and we’re right in the thick of things.”

Manitoba plays twice today, with games against Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard (4-3) this afternoon and B.C.’s Jim Cotter (3-3) tonight.

Thursday will see Carruthers face Ontario’s Mark Kean (2-4) and Alberta’s Koe (3-3). Manitoba wraps up their round-robin Friday morning against P.E.I.’s Adam Casey (2-4).

Heading into today, Northern Ontario continues to be alone in first place and unbeatable thus far at 7-0. Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue is 5-2, while Saskatchewan’s Steven Laycock comes into today at 4-2.

Canada’s Morris — with third Pat Simmons now skipping after a slow start for the defending champions — is tied with Quebec for the final playoff spot at 4-3.

There was a notable moment of sportsmanship in last night’s highly anticpated Battle of Alberta between Koe and Team Canada’s John Morris. Canada second Carter Rycroft had a rock pulled in the ninth end of a 3-3 game when the automatic hog-line detection lights went off, but TV replays showed Rycroft had clearly released the rock in time and the lights had malfunctioned.

The two teams watched the replays together on the overhead scoreboard and Alberta allowed Rycroft to throw the rock again. He made the shot and Canada went on to score a deuce that end en route to a 6-3 victory over Alberta.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek