Braden Calvert of Fort Rouge and Reid Carruthers of the Morris Curling Club will share the spotlight tonight (6 p.m.) on sheet C at the Yellowhead Centre in Neepawa.

On the line is a spot in Sunday afternoons final of the 2023 Viterra Provincial Men’s Curling Championship.

Calvert, third Kyle Kurz, second Ian McMillan and lead Rob Gordon put in a workman like performance this morning and defeated clubmate Matt Dunstone 8-4 handing the number one seed his first loss of the week.

“We played really well, caught on to the ice and we’ve been throwing it good all week,” said Calvert. “Obviously, that’s a big win. We know how big that is. We’ve lost that game three times as a team or whatever it is. We knew how big it was and we came to play today.”

Calvert, Kurz, McMillan and Gordon reeled off their fifth straight win and will be looking for number six against Carruthers.

“Just keep playing like we are,” answered Calvert when asked that the key is tonight. “Take it an end at a time and just stay solid and reading the ice right. Hopefully it will be a tight game and see what happens.”

Carruthers, Derek Samagalski and Connor Njegovan rallied from a 7-1 deficit after four ends and beat Steve Irwin of the Brandon Curling Club 10-8.

“Playing with three players this week, maybe we were a little fatigued this morning,” Njegovan replied when asked to describe their come-from-behind win over Irwin. “We’ve been kind of doing this all year where we don’t give up, we just keep playing and finding a way to make shots. We were fortunate to get a couple of misses down the stretch from Steve that doesn’t happen very often. It was a really big game for us.”

Team Carruthers started their rally with three in the fifth end, stole a single point in six and deuces in the seventh and eighth ends. Irwin had a great chance to tie the game at 9-9 in the ninth end but his last rock draw to the eight-foot for two was heavy. Up one coming home with the hammer, Carruthers played a hit and stick on Irwin’s shot rock in the 12-foot on the tee line with his final rock for the 10-8 win.

Njegovan says they’ll stick to their process and do what they do well when they meet Calvert tonight.

“We don’t really look at who we’re playing it’s more just playing the curling shots. If we stick to our plan and keep making the curling shots how we kind of are and keep learning, I think we’ll have a chance with Reid to win the game.”

Dunstone and Irwin will meet in the 3-4 Page Playoff game tonight.

Both teams bounced back from their morning losses and won their respective Playoff Round B side qualifiers.

Dunstone downed Ryan Wiebe of Fort Rouge 7-1 six ends and Irwin outscored Corey Chambers of Fort Garry 9-8 in an extra end.

 

carruthers