 The Reid Carruthers rink out of Winnipeg (Photo: Curling Canada) needed overtime in both games on Sunday to jump to a 3-0 start in Regina. By: Cameron Sallaj The Manitoba champions from the Granite Curling Club continued their strong start in this year's bid for the Canadian men's title on Sunday. The team, with Brad Jacobs at the helm won their opening game on Saturday 7-5 against Manitoba's Matt Dunstone before facing both Ontario and Northern Ontario in Sunday's action. In Draw 4 against Ontario's Scott Howard, the Carruthers rink with skip Jacobs, third Reid Carruthers, second Derek Samagalski and lead Connor Njegovan took two in the fifth end to open up a two-point lead. They later extending their lead to three with another deuce in the ninth end. However, Team Howard fought back in the tenth end, scoring three and forcing Manitoba's first extra end of the day. Facing a cluttered house on his first, Jacobs opened up the scoring area with a clearing shot on his first. This allowed him an open hit for the win with his final stone, however, his shooter spun away from the button and forced a measurement for the win. Luckily for Carruthers, the measure went in their favor, and they improved their record to 2-0 while Team Howard fell to 1-1. In the evening Draw 6, Manitoba went up against Northern Ontario's Trevor Bonot in a battle of two undefeated teams. Jacobs, facing the province he formally represented at many Briers, got on the board early with two in the second. This was followed up immediately with two by Northern Ontario, however, tying the game at two all after three. For the next four ends, the two teams continued this pattern with Jacobs eventually blanking the eighth end. After what was setting up to be another blank in nine, NO skip Trevor Bonot uncharacteristically flashed his last hit of the end, allowing Brad Jacobs a draw for two to take an 8-6 lead into the final end. Despite the setback, Team Bonot did not give up. The teams third Mike McCarville made two perfect shots, a triple runback to clean up the middle and a freeze around the corner guard. This allowed Trevor Bonot to play a soft weight hit on his final stone of the end to score two and force another extra end from the Carruthers rink. With the game tied at eight all and holding the hammer, the Manitoba champions kept the middle of the sheet open. When Bonot went a little deep on his final draw, Jacobs ensured the victory for his rink with a takeout around the center guard, securing the 9-8 win and improving the teams record to 3-0 after three days of competition. After the two wins Sunday, the Carruthers rink now sit atop the Pool A standings, tied with Alberta's Brendan Bottcher who won their Draw 6 game 8-2 over Ontario's Howard. Northern Ontario fall to 2-1 but sit in sole possession of third place. Behind them are Manitoba's Matt Dunstone and the Yukon's Thomas Scoffin, each with a record of 1-1. With all of Monday off, Team Carruthers will make to look it four in a row when they face British Columbia's Catlin Schneider (1-2; Victoria) in Draw 10 action Tuesday morning. In the back half of their round robin, the team will play New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and the Yukon before rounding out against the Bottcher rink in the final draw of the preliminary round. The next draw from the 2024 Montana's Brier is at 9:00 AM Central Time with Pool B set for action. The featured matchup on TSN sees defending champions Brad Gushue and Team Canada face the Northwest Territories' Jamie Koe in a battle of two 2-1 teams. |
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Manitoba's Kate Cameron (Photo: Curling Canada) announced on Monday that the team will look different for the new Olympic quadrennial.
