If Carruthers had his druthers, he’d always play in Brandon

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This article was published 04/12/2016 (3519 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon — Reid Carruthers won his first provincial men’s curling championship as a skip at Westman Place two years ago. Now he hopes to earn his first Canada Cup of Curling title in the same arena.

Carruthers and his Winnipeg team of Braeden Moskowy, Derek Samagalski and Colin Hodgson advanced to the men’s final with a 6-5 extra-end victory over Toronto’s John Epping in Saturday evening’s semifinal.

The game turned into a test of nerves for Carruthers, who gave up steals in the eighth and 10th ends — he was heavy with a draw to the button in 10 — as Epping overcame a 5-1 deficit after six ends to force the extra. However, Carruthers remained calm and drew the four-foot with his final shot to advance to today’s final at 6:30 p.m.

“I had the chance for the win and we had a good end set up,” Carruthers said. “The extra end was the biggest thing and I knew my adrenaline would be going so I just tried to throw a guard and it worked.

“I wanted to give one to (the sweepers); I wanted one they could sweep, because they’re great sweepers and it worked out.”

Carruthers’ win ends Epping’s magical run. He started the event with three straight losses before rallying to win three in a row to earn a tiebreaker. He topped Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock 7-5 there, but struggled early in the semifinal.

After forcing Carruthers to one in the second end, Epping’s draw against three in the fourth end stopped in the back of the 12-foot resulting in a steal of two.

He scored one in the fifth end and the squads exchanged deuces in the sixth and seventh before Epping made a pair of freezes in the eighth to leave a tough double takeout for Carruthers that could have earned him five, but jammed and resulted in a steal of one.

Epping didn’t miss a shot after the seventh end, but his comeback bid ultimately fell short. However, he was proud of the way his team kept battling.

“I think after that other deuce we gave up to go down four it was hard,” he said. “Then to have him throw his last one, I don’t think we could ask for more at that point. We’re gritty and we don’t give up. It was a great shot by Reid on his last one.”

Carruthers will now face Team Gushue, which is skipped by Carruthers’ former teammate and roommate Mark Nichols, in today’s final. Gushue didn’t come to the event because of a hip injury.

The Winnipeg skip believes dealing with the nerves of the semifinal will benefit his side in the final. He is looking forward to playing Nichols in front of a Westman Place crowd that has supported him all week.

“He’s my former roommate so I know a lot about him,” Carruthers said. “We’re going to have to play even a little sharper than we did tonight. We had some really good ends, but that’s the beauty of 10-end games — you can’t take a couple off. We’re going to have to play a solid 10 ends and maybe one more.

“Winning provincials was really cool but winning the Canada Cup with the best seven teams in Canada, this would be pretty cool,” he continued.

“Especially to get our (Olympic) Trials spot by December, it would be a great way to set up the second half of our year.”

— Brandon Sun