Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 02, 2014, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B5 W ANT to make the world's safest bet on Super Bowl Sunday? Then ignore the big game in New York this afternoon and instead lay all your money on this afternoon's Manitoba men's curling championship final at the MTS Iceplex. That's because there is nothing closer to a sure thing in the world of sports then betting on Jeff Stoughton when he's playing in the Manitoba men's final, as he will today at 2 p. m.. The numbers are freakish - eleven times prior to today, Stoughton has played in the final game of the Manitoba men's playdowns. And 10 times he has hoisted the trophy afterward. There's dominating and then there's otherworldy, and the 10- 1 record Stoughton will take into today's final is so interstellar it seems safe to say it probably doesn't much matter which of this morning's semifinalists - fifth seed Willie Lyburn or longtime rival Mike McEwen - Stoughton plays for the championship. Now, none of this is to suggest Stoughton cannot be beaten in a Manitoba final. Indeed, Swan River's Brent Scales memorably proved it can be done in the 2004 final, taking him down with some final- end heroics that stand to this day as the only blemish on Stoughton's resum� of Manitoba finals. But since that Scales debacle, Stoughton has been quite literally unbeatable, winning all six of the Manitoba finals he's played in the interim. Which is also, coincidentally, the same 6- 0 record he has put together at the Iceplex since Wednesday, making him the last undefeated team in a 32- team field heading into the title game. Stoughton's most recent victory came Saturday night over McEwen in the page playoff 1 vs. 1 game, and he did it in style - a 9- 5 thrashing that lasted just eight ends and saw Stoughton and his team simply take over after spotting McEwen a 4- 3 lead through the first four ends. It was an all too familiar script for Mc- Ewen, who seems to lose the big games to Stoughton at this event, including the 2010 and 2011 finals and the 2013 semifinal. McEwen was scratching his head Saturday night as he tried to figure out what went wrong this time. " The first four ends were awesome," said McEwen. " Up to this point, we hadn't lost to them this year, beat them two or three times in a row. So I won't look at it any different. I felt like they just plain outplayed us the last three ends." And so it goes at an event Stoughton has turned into a personal playground for the better part of two decades now. So how is it, Stoughton was asked Saturday night, that you so utterly dominate this event, year after year after year? It is the simplest of recipes, as Stoughton describes it. " We're playing well, we've got confidence going into finals, we're feeling like we can win the game," he said. " We're looking forward to it. We get hammer and ( choice of) rocks - that's a bit of an advantage, for sure. " If the guys keep playing, we'll be OK." Stoughton was asked if an 11th Manitoba men's curling title today would mean any more than last year's 10th one did. " Probably not," he said. " But we'd love to go back to the Brier." He said a loss at the Canadian curling trials at the MTS Centre in December left a void for his team they are hoping to fill with a return to the national stage in another form. " As soon as we sort of got over New Year's and Christmas and all that, we decided to refocus and try to get back to the Brier. We're in a great position - one game away. And that's what we want to do - go back and play again in the Brier." McEwen, not surprisingly, has humbler expectations coming into today. " All we want to do is get to that final game," McEwen said. " That's all we can ask for." Ain't that the truth - especially if Jeff Stoughton is the one waiting for you in that final. Twitter: @ PaulWiecek TO SEE THE LATEST EPISODE AND BEHIND THE SCENES FOOTAGE, VISIT winnipegfreepress. com SPORTS CURLING B5 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2014 D EFENDING champion Jeff Stoughton is one more win away from his 11th provincial men's curling title and second seed Mike McEwen and fifth seed Willie Lyburn will go head to head in the semifinal this morning at the MTS Iceplex to determine who gets the unenviable task of facing him in this afternoon's provincial final. Stoughton, a 10- time Manitoba men's champion, advanced to today's provincial final with a 9- 5 victory over McEwen in Saturday night's Page playoff 1 vs 1 game. The loss to Stoughton relegated McEwen to this morning's semifinal, where Lyburn will be lying in wait after a thrilling 9- 8 victory over Steve Irwin's unheralded Brandon foursome in Saturday night's Page playoff 2 vs. 2 game. PAUL WIECEK paul. wiecek@ freepress. mb. ca JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Jeff Stoughton lines up a shot as he plays Mike McEwen at the Safeway men's provincial championship Saturday. Is this champion beatable? Stoughton could win his 11th men's provincial title in final this afternoon By Paul Wiecek Lyburn trailed Irwin 4- 1 after just the second end last night but gamely battled back, cracking a four- ender in the eighth end, then drawing the four- foot with the final rock of the game to squeak out the narrowest of victories. This will be Lyburn's second appearance in a Manitoba men's semifinal in three years. He played in the 2012 semifinal, losing to eventual champion Rob Fowler. Lyburn said last night he has no doubt McEwen, widely regarded as skip of the best team in Canada never to win a provincial men's title, will be favoured to win today's semifinal and advance to face Stoughton. And Lyburn's sure of something else: " We expect to win - that's what we do," he said. " We put a lot of work in and the guys are playing great." His victory Saturday night overcame a red- hot Irwin foursome that had already won twice on Saturday just to advance to last night's game, eliminating Randy Neufeld 8- 7 in the morning draw and punting Fowler 8- 3 in the afternoon. But a skip who until yesterday was best known as a three- time Manitoba club curling champion simply could not close the deal against Lyburn when it mattered most Saturday night. " To have control of that game and give up a big one in 8, it's pretty tough," Irwin said. " But it's been a good week. We had one bad end." Saturday night's page playoffs were conspicuous by the absence of Fowler, who had a disastrous Saturday. After going undefeated through his first four games, he was eliminated with back- to- back losses on Saturday, falling 9- 4 to McEwen in the morning draw and losing to Irwin in the afternoon draw. " We just had a real hard time capitalizing on our opportunities. It seemed like for the most part the other team had us under pressure. It was very rare we had the other team under pressure at all," Fowler said. " Anytime it was setting up good for us, we always seemed to have a half shot or a miss. " You just can't afford to do that when you start lining up against the best teams in the province. If you make mistakes, they're going to punish you, and that's what happened today... " It's very disappointing. The guys worked hard, we trained in the summer and put in a lot of time and we definitely practised a lot. But at the end of the day, when you're curling on Saturday in this, you have to execute and we didn't do that. " So we got what we deserved." LOOSE HAIRS : The all- stars for the 2014 Safeway Championship, as chosen by the Manitoba Curling Media Association, were skip Steve Irwin, Stoughton third Jon Mead, McEwen second Matt Wozniak and Lyburn lead Tyler Forrest... The 2015 Safeway Championship will be held at Brandon's Keystone Centre... Total attendance through 15 draws at the Iceplex was 4,594. paul. wiecek@ freepress. mb. ca Twitter: @ PaulWiecek Man from Charleswood a pretty safe bet today Stoughton accustomed to the Safeway crown OCD Centre Manitoba 204- 942- 3331 www. ocdmanitoba. ca B_ 05_ Feb- 02- 14_ FP_ 01. indd B5 2/ 1/ 14 10: 51: 01 PM ;