FINALLY, A WIN!
Team Saskatchewan gives fans big boost
The poster boys for the 2018 Tim Hortons Brier, presented by Mosaic, finally gave the home fans a win to cheer about. Saskatchewan (Saskatoon) defeated New Brunswick (Oromocto) 9-4, skipped by James Grattan, to score its first victory at the Brandt Centre Sunday evening igniting a lusty cheer from the audience. Both teams are 1-2.
Ever since Curling Canada awarded the event to Regina, skip Steve Laycock, fourth-rock thrower Matt Dunstone, second Kirk Muyres, and lead Dallan Muyres (Lyle Muyres is the alternate and Pat Simmons the coach) have been featured on promotional material. That’s because the four have been the province’s best team for a few years.
However, with losses in their first two games the fans were starving for a win. And they got it in fine fashion as Saskatchewan dominated after taking a 4-3 lead in the third end.
“That was nice to get a win finally. We played a little bit better each time out so far and finally it turned into victory,” said Laycock. “We just took a little while to figure out the ice and the rocks. We weren’t that far off, we weren’t throwing it that badly. We played a really good Manitoba team this morning (a 7-5 extra-end loss). We’re playing a little bit better now. Hopefully we can keep that rolling.”
Meanwhile at the top of Pool B at 3-0 are Northern Ontario (Sault Ste. Marie) and Manitoba (West St. Paul). Manitoba, the pool’s top-rated team skipped by Reid Carruthers, breezed past Nunavut 12-5 to keep the team from Iqaluit skipped by David St. Louis winless (3-0).
The partisan crowd was so thirsty for a Saskatchewan victory that the loudest cheer of the day just might have come Sunday morning when a draw by Manitoba skip Reid Carruthers came up light in the 10th end to surrender a steal to Saskatchewan, forcing an extra end.
“It was an exciting shot,” said Carruthers. “We’re in Saskatchewan. They should be cheering against me.”
Brad Jacobs, the 2014 Olympic gold medallist, used the steal of four courtesy of Prince Edward Island skip Eddie MacKenzie (1-2) in the fifth end to beat the Charlottetown team 9-5.
If Jamie Murphy has any plans to pull off what fellow Haligonian Mary-Anne Arsenault accomplished last month at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts he’s off to a good start.
Murphy’s Nova Scotia squad overcame a 6-3 deficit after six ends to defeat Greg Smith of Newfoundland/Labrador 9-6 Sunday to improve to 2-0 in Pool A.
Arsenault flew under the radar at the Scotties to reach the final weekend Page playoffs leading Nova Scotia to a third-place finish.
“We certainly watched what they did. They prepared and compete very similar to our team. Every year we get to come back to this type of event, we get a little bit more comfortable,” said Murphy.
Joining Murphy at 2-0 were Team Canada (St. John’s) skipped by defending world champion Brad Gushue and Team Wild Card (Winnipeg) with Mike McEwen calling the shots.
Both were pre-event favourites and are living up to their rankings. Team Canada (St. John’s) took care of business by downing Thomas Scoffin of the Yukon Territories (Whitehorse) 8-3. McEwen, meanwhile, handed Sean Geall of British Columbia (Kelowna) a 9-3 defeat.
Gushue’s win was his 113th in Brier history tying him for all-time record with Russ Howard and Kevin Martin. He can get the record by beating Nunavut in this morning’s draw.