Reid Carruthers took down former teammate Jeff Stoughton 9-3 Friday night to reach the A-qualifier match of the Safeway Championship final eight round in Brandon, Man.
Carruthers played front-end for four seasons on Team Stoughton and won the world championship in 2011. The Winnipeg rink split up over the summer and Carruthers returned to the skip role with a brand-new lineup featuring Braeden Moskowy, Derek Samagalski and Colin Hodgson.
Stoughton opened with the hammer and blanked the first two ends but gave up a steal of one in the third. The 11-time Manitoba champion bounced back to get a deuce in four but Carruthers took the lead for good scoring three in the fifth to make it 4-2.
Carruthers held Stoughton to a single in six and rolled away with another three-ender in the seventh and iced the game adding a steal of two in eight.
Team Carruthers takes on Jason Gunnlaugson, who scored four in the final end to lift his Winnipeg team to a 6-4 victory over Kelly Marnoch of Carberry.
Stoughton and Marnoch clash in the B-bracket semifinals.
Men’s Provincial Championships: Click here for live scores
Elsewhere, Mike McEwen defeated Evan Martin 7-1 in six ends of another all-Winnipeg rink match. With the game tied 1-1 after two, McEwen blanked two straight ends before his patience paid off scoring a five-ender in the fifth and stealing a point in the sixth to bring out the handshakes.
McEwen meets Jared Kolomaya of Stonewall in the second A-final. Kolomaya scored a single in the 10th end to edge Winnipeg’s Braden Calvert 6-5.
