Reid Carruthers will play in the provincial men’s championship final for the second year in a row.
Carruthers and his squad from the West St. Paul Curling Club defeated a Mike McEwen-less Team McEwen 7-3 in Saturday night’s 1-vs-1 Page Playoff game at the Viterra Championship in Winkler. McEwen hasn’t played since Wednesday after being hospitalized with chicken pox as BJ Neufeld, Matt Wozniak and Denni Neufeld continue to play as a 3-man squad.
After a deuce in the second end Carruthers stole a pair in the fourth end for a commanding 4-1 lead. Carruthers added another deuce in the seventh and stole a single point in the eighth end as he advanced to the provincial final for the fifth time in the last six years. (Two with Jeff Stoughton, three as a skip)
It was the fourth straight year these two teams met in the 1-vs-1 Page Playoff game,
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The two-time defending champion McEwen team will now have to go through the semifinal if they’re to qualify for a fifth straight provincial final.
Team McEwen will take on Manitoba junior champion JT Ryan in Sunday morning’s semifinal. Ryan’s club from the Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club eliminated Brandon’s Steve Irwin in the other Page Playoff game with a 5-3 win.
It’s the second time in the last three years Manitoba’s reigning junior champ has qualified for the provincial men’s semifinal after Matt Dunstone beat Carruthers in the 2016 semi’s.
The semifinal will be played at 8:30 am on Sunday followed by the championship game at 3:00 pm at the Winkler Arena.
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