KAMLOOPS, B.C. — Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton made it look hard again Sunday night but he improved to 4-0 at the top of the standings at the Canadian men’s curling championship
He was actually down a point coming home at the Tim Hortons Brier in Kamloops, B.C. against winless New Brunswick and James Grattan but scored five in the 10th end to win 9-5.
B.C.’s John Morris also had trouble with winless Jamie Murphy and Nova Scotia and was down a point coming home in 10. But third Jim Cotter’s final rock scored three to give them an 8-6 win and improve their record to 3-1.
Alberta’s Kevin Koe now sits at 2-1 after handing Newfoundland and Labrador’s Brad Gushue his second loss of the day, 9-4 in eight ends.
P.E.I.’s Eddie MacKenzie also improved to 2-1 with a 10-7 win over Northern Ontario’s Jeff Currie.
Two-time world champion Jeff Stoughton needed an extra end to grind out a 7-6 win over the Northwest-Yukon Territories Sunday afternoon. It might not have been pretty but, with a loss for John Morris and his B.C. squad, Stoughton and Manitoba claimed sole possession of first place as the only unbeaten squad at the Tim Hortons Brier with three straight wins.
“A little surprise we’re the only ones,” Stoughton said, starting to add they were lucky to win before checking himself.
“We hung in there and battled and made a couple of shots finally in 9, 10 and 11 and got the W,” he said instead. “We know we can play a heck of a lot better than that. . . We were just missing too many draws heavy today and finally got it together late in the game. . . . If we’re a little off, as we’ve been, we’re squeaking by.”
Morris and his B.C. rink fell 7-4 to Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard after Menard jumped into an early lead with a four in the first end, thanks to a packed four-foot that Morris couldn’t clear.
“Four was like a blessing from heaven,” said the Quebec skip, adding that they thought they might end up with two or maybe three.
“If we can play like we played the first three games, we’ve got a sniff at making the playoffs,” added the 2006 Brier champion, who also won silver at the world championship the same year.
Morris was disappointed in the way he played.
“Those guys were great and we were average and that was the difference,” he said. “We have to step our game up a bit for sure. I can call a better game.”
It was Menard’s second win of the day after beating Saskatchewan’s Steve Laycock 7-5 in the morning draw. But Laycock bounced back in the afternoon, beating Northern Ontario’s Jeff Currie 6-4.
There is now a four-way tie for second at 2-1 between Menard, Morris, Laycock and Ontario’s Greg Balsdon, playing in his first Brier, who took down 2006 Olympic gold medallist Brad Gushue and his Newfoundland and Labrador rink 7-6.
Balsdon scored two in the 10th end to win 7-6 and was continuing to celebrate just being able to curl for the men’s title, after a morning 5-4 loss to Jamie Koe and the Territories, who sat at 1-2, along with Currie and Gushue.
“We’re having fun, it’s been a blast, we’re playing pretty well but the experience has been nothing like we’ve ever curled before,” said Balsdon, a 36-year-old golf pro from Toronto, who works and curls out of the Glendale Golf and Country Club in Hamilton.
Gushue had issues with the ice Saturday but blamed only himself Sunday.
“The ice was good today there was no reason to miss shots,” he said. “It’s not a hard game if you hit the broom and throw the right way. We can’t seem to do either one.”
Ice conditions made for a strange end to Saturday night’s faceoff between Gushue and Stoughton. Both their final draws finished perhaps five metres from the house.
The villain was a warm air current that heated up one end of the sheet where they were playing. It was decided to cool the arena and shut off air circulating equipment during games to prevent a repeat.
Also in the morning draw, Eddie MacKenzie scored a pair of points in the ninth end to lead P.E.I. past winless Nova Scotia’s Jamie Murphy 7-5, moving Mackenzie to 1-1. Alberta’s Kevin Koe also overpowered James Grattan and New Brunswick 10-1 for his first win and sat at 1-1 heading into the evening draw.