Reid Carruthers defeated Mike McEwen 5-3 Sunday during an all-Winnipeg rink final to win the Safeway Championship in Brandon, Man., and earn the right to represent Manitoba at the Tim Hortons Brier.
Carruthers, who won the provincial title three times playing front-end on Team Jeff Stoughton, captured his first Manitoba championship as a skip with the all-new rink he formed over the summer featuring third Braeden Moskowy, second Derek Samagalski and lead Colin Hodgson.
Provincial championships: Click here for line scores
Carruthers, who beat McEwen 6-5 in an extra end during Saturday’s page A-vs-A game, opened the game with the hammer and blanked the first but gave up a steal of one in the second. He made a double takeout and rolled to blank the third but settled for a single in four to even the score 1-1.
McEwen blanked the fifth end but his final stone in the sixth rolled heavy giving up a trio of points to trail 4-1. He was held to one in the seventh but picked up a single steal in eight to claw back within one.
Carruthers hit and stuck for one in the ninth to get the two-point advantage. McEwen held the hammer coming home but couldn’t get the freeze with his first skip stone and Carruthers kicked it out to run him out of rocks.
Earlier Sunday, McEwen nailed the double takeout in the 10th to run Stoughton out of rocks in the semifinal and win 6-4, eliminating the 11-time Manitoba champion.
Stoughton already held shot rock in the third end but it was surrounded by three McEwen stones and set up a difficult draw for a deuce. Team Stoughton sweepers Connor Njegovan and Alex Forrest dragged their final stone on target to grab a piece of the button for the two count.
McEwen bounced back scoring three in the fourth and Stoughton made a double takeout for a single in the fifth end to even it up 3-3 and stole one in six to pull ahead.
Stoughton didn’t roll off his hit with his final shot in the seventh and McEwen capitalized with an open shot for the takeout to get a deuce to regain the lead 4-3 in the eighth and then stole one in nine to take a two-point advantage.