 Posted 2010-02-04The defending champion, Team Stoughton from the Charleswood Curling Club has been named the top seed for the 2010 Safeway Championship, which will take place from Wednesday February 10 to Sunday, February 14 in Steinbach Manitoba at the TG Smith Centre.
The second seed is Team McEwen, Pre-Olympics Trial participant and CTRS point leader. Rounding out the top three is the 2008 Safeway Championship winner Team Burtnyk, seeded third.
Other notable participants include 2006 Finalist Team Carruthers seeded fourth and 2010 Olympic Trials participant Team Gunnlaugson seeded fifth.
The top 16 seeds are:
1- Jeff Stoughton, Charleswood
2- Mike McEwen, Assiniboine Memorial
3- Kerry Burtnyk, Assiniboine Memorial
4-Reid Carruthers, West Kildonan
5-Jason Gunnlaugson, Beausejour
6-David Bohn, Assiniboine Memorial
7-Allan Lyburn, Brandon
8-Brendan Taylor, West Kildonan
9-Randy Dutiaume, Stony Mountain
10-Terry McNamee, Hamiota
11-Dave Elias, West Kildonan
12-Dave Boehmer, Petersfield
13-Randy Neufeld, LaSalle
14-David Hamblin, Morris
15-William Lyburn, Brandon
16-Bob Sigurdson, Granite
The seeding for the Safeway Championship is done by the 32 teams competing in the Championship.
This years Championship will sure to be one of the most exciting in memory as this is one of the strongest fields in recent history.
Safeway looks forward to returning to Steinbach for the 2010 Safeway Championship where fans are sure to enjoy great curling action both on and off the ice” said John Graham, Public Affairs Manager, Canada Safeway Limited. “For over a half century Safeway has been sponsoring curling events in Manitoba and we continue to value opportunities like this event where we get to work with the many great communities, volunteers and players associated with this sport.
Curl Manitoba Executive Director Shane Ray stated “We are excited for the upcoming week in Steinbach. With such a strong field the fans in the stands and those at home watching on Shaw are sure to be treated to a memorable week of curling. From the returning vets like to Stoughton and Burtnyk to the young guns like Gunnlaugson and Carruthers the level of curling will be very high.”
This will mark the 86th year of the Provincial Men’s Championship. The 2010 Safeway Champions will go on to represent Manitoba and wear the Bison at the 2010 Tim Horton’s Brier in Halifax.
Team write-ups courtesy of Mr. Resby Coutts of the thecurler.com
Seed #1: Team Stoughton
When Jeff Stoughton and Steve Gould won the 2006 Safeway Championship in Steinbach, it was a fifth Manitoba Men’s title for Stoughton and second for Gould. They have since won two more and return to Steinbach as defending champions and favourites. A win would give Stoughton a remarkable eight Men’s titles, a figure unlikely to ever be equaled. Five for Gould would put him in a very small, elite group of Manitobans. Three for Fowler and two for Park are small numbers on this team but rare in the over 85 years of Manitoba championship play. Compared with the rest of the teams in the Manitoba top-five the Stoughton team plays a short list of bonspiels, preferring to perfect their game through practice and elite competition. This year the list was shorter than usual as they focused on the Prince George Pre-Trials, where they won the A-Qualifier in the minimum three games, and the Canadian Curling Trials, where they came up just short with a loss in the semi-final. On the bonspiel circuit, the Stoughton foursome won the Brandon WCT event, reached the semi-finals in Portage, and qualified in Brantford. In the past month, the champions have prepared for Steinbach by competing in two Grand Slam events. At both The National in Guelph and The Canadian Open in Winnipeg, Team Stoughton qualified for the playoff round suggesting bad news for the rest of the hopefuls in Steinbach. The team is playing well but the peak that every elite team seeks is likely to come when they need it most – on the ice in Steinbach.
Seed #2: Team McEwen
Mike McEwen, B.J. Neufeld, Matt Wozniak, and Denni Neufeld have earned their stripes among Canada’s curling elite. They have graduated from being the young team knocking at the door to being a regular at the Grand Slam series of events. They earned the Canadian Team Ranking System invitation to compete in this year’s Safeway Championship in Steinbach and go to the event as most likely of the young teams to lead the breakthrough into the Manitoba winner’s circle by the next generation of stars. Like Stoughton and Burtnyk, Team McEwen focused their early season on qualifying for the Canadian Curling Trials. Their approach was an aggressive bonspiel schedule. They qualified for the playoffs at an early bonspiel in Oslo, Norway and followed by qualifying in Vernon and New Westminster and reaching the semi-finals in Brooks. The disappointment of an extra end loss in the qualifying game at the Pre-Trials was followed immediately by a bounce-back championship in Brantford, qualifying in Saskatoon, and reaching the semi-finals in Dauphin. They also qualified again at the Manitoba Curling Tour Championship as they attempted to defend their title. Competitive success like this adds up to Grand Slam invitations and Team McEwen qualified for the playoff round at both The National in Guelph and The Canadian Open in Winnipeg. All of that adds up to a team on a roll as they go into Steinbach in their quest for a young curler’s dream – that first trip to the Brier.
Seed #3: Team Burtnyk
You can’t blame Kerry Burtnyk’s fans if they think their hero may be fated to win his fifth Manitoba championship this year. Burtnyk’s two Canadian championships came in 1981 and 1995, both years when the Brier was played in Halifax. That same trip awaits this year’s winner of the Safeway Championship in Steinbach. Once the skip of the brash young team everyone was talking about at the Manitoba and Canadian championships, Burtnyk is now the elder statesman among the elite of Manitoba curlers. He is appreciated by the fans and feared by his competitors who know he can still make every shot and see opportunities they missed. With Richard Daneault and Garth Smith, he represented Manitoba at the 2008 Winnipeg Brier and recruited Don Walchuk to play third in a run at the Canadian Olympic invitation. That run fell short in an extra end loss to Jason Gunnlaugson’s Manitobans in the Pre-Trials. In their preparations for Prince George, however, Team Burtnyk had what most other teams would call a successful season. They qualified at an early bonspiel in Edmonton, reached the semi-finals in Vernon, BC and won the WCT event in Portage. Earned invitations to the Grand Slam events, The National in Guelph and The Canadian Open in Winnipeg, are evidence of Team Burtnyk’s continuing status as one of Canada’s elite curling teams. Although results were disappointing in those two events, they were part of the preparation process for Steinbach. Most Manitoba fans would bet on the Burtnyk foursome making a run in Steinbach and if it comes down to one game, Burtnyk will be a favourite to win that trip to Halifax.
Seed #4: Team Carruthers
Reid Carruthers returns to Steinbach’s Safeway Championship with a different team from the one he skipped to the final game four years ago. Two years later, Carruthers and his third Jason Gunnlaugson came to a crossroads. While Gunnlaugson chose the road to the Canadian Curling Trials, Carruthers chose the path, which earned him an education degree and a teaching job at J.H. Bruns Collegiate. With no regrets for the decision, Carruthers has built a team, which has consistently been one of the best in the province this year. Former Manitoba and Canadian Junior champion Chris Galbraith has been a great fit at third. Second Derek Samagalski provides the link to that great 2006 run at Steinbach. Lead Shane Gilgallen provides Brier experience from his Manitoba titles in 2002 and 2005. Together they qualified in eight out of nine events in this Manitoba Curling Tour season. They reached the quarterfinals in Morris, Brandon, and Portage; the semi-finals in Swan River and Stonewall; and the final in Selkirk and Gimli. Team Carruthers first title came at the Manitoba Curling Tour Championship where the prize purse pushed them to $28,500, a remarkable amount for a team playing only Manitoba events. It also won them the invitation to Steinbach for a chance to win the coveted trip to the Canadian Championship.
Seed #5: Team Gunnlaugson
Jason Gunnlaugson and his Beausejour foursome are the team carrying the flag at the front of a parade of impressive young teams competing in this year’s Safeway Championship. At the end of last season, Gunnlaugson moved to the tee and began a remarkable ride with Justin Richter and Tyler Forrest. Forrest’s younger brother Alex (now the Canadian Junior Silver medal winning skip) played second as they qualified at the new bonspiel in Morris, adding to the points accumulated over the previous year with Daley Peters and earlier with Reid Carruthers. Those points earned them a spot in Canada’s Pre-Trials qualifier. They recruited Braden Zawada into the second position for the season and started at the bottom of what had to be a very fast learning curve. A long-shot to get through Prince George, Team Gunnlaugson set an aggressive travel schedule to play the best in World Curling Tour events across the country. Qualifying in Brockville, Brandon and Brooks, they learned twice from playoff losses to Kevin Martin. They reached the final in Portage where they lost to Kerry Burtnyk. The travel and training paid off as they survived the Pre-Trials with extra end wins over Burtnyk and Mike McEwen to qualify for the Canadian Curling Trials. Their 0-7 record was a disappointment but their successful season earned them invitations to the two Grand Slam events in early 2010. They go into Steinbach riding the season-long experience of playing the best in the nation and knowing they can beat the best in the province. Gunnlaugson (as third), Forrest (as lead) and Richter (as fifth) all recall the excitement of playing the final in Steinbach in 2006 and hope the experience they have gained can take them one step further.
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