A last-shot triple-kill by Scott Ramsay gave the Thistle team a big four-ender and 9-7 victory Friday morning over defending champion and top seed Reid Carruthers from West St. Paul at the Viterra Championship in Selkirk.
The win advances Ramsay to the eight-team playoff round, while Carruthers drops to the B-Side of the preliminary round.
Second seed, 2015 provincial finalist Mike McEwen-Fort Rouge defeated Dennis Bohn-Assiniboine Memorial 5-3 to advance.
A triple also played a key role in the McEwen victory. Leading 4-3 without hammer, McEwen was in trouble until third B.J. Neufeld baled the team out with his triple. McEwen went on to steal a point and a 5-3 win.
Daley Peters of East St. Paul was a 6-3 victor over Alex Forrest of East St. Paul and William Lyburn of Granite defeated Canadian Junior champion Matt Dunstone of Granite 7-6.
McEwen, Ramsay, Peters, and Lyburn advance to the playoff round and will play next at 7:45 p.m.
Carruthers, Dunstone, Bohn and Forrest will play B-Side qualifier games at 4 p.m.
Hayden Forrester from Fort Rouge, the current Manitoba U-18 champion, and Taylor McIntyre of Granite, with three members of the 2011 Manitoba Junior Men’s Champion team, won B-Side games on the Friday noon draw.
Forrester won 8-4 over Jared Kolomay of Stonewall, and McIntyre won 7-1 over Kelly Marnoch-Carberry to advance into B-Side qualifier games on the 4 p.m. draw.
Forrester will play defending champion Carruthers while McIntyre meets Canadian Junior champion Matt Dunstone of Granite.
David Bohn of Granite and Steve Irwin of Brandon also stayed alive. Bohn defeated Rylan Young from Springfield 9-7, and will advance to a re-match of an earlier game against his twin brother Dennis and his Assiniboine Memorial team.
Irwin posted a 9-6 win over Trevor Loreth from Granite, mainly on the strength of an in-off kill to remove a Loreth stone from the button and count three on the eighth end.
Irwin will play Forrest, whose team includes two members of the 2010 Manitoba Junior Men’s champion team.
