Jeff Stoughton easily won his seventh straight Ford Worlds match on Tuesday night at the Brandt Centre.
Photo: Michael Burns Photography
The 7-3 win against Scotland appeared so routine — complete with the usual complement of double-kills of assorted descriptions — as to be pre-ordained.
Heading into a scuffle with the Czechs Wednesday morning, Canada’s Stoughton has duplicated his run out of the gate in his last Worlds, circa 1999 at Saint John, N.B.
That year, Stoughton’s Winnipeg team lost its eighth round-robin outing to Germany’s Andy Kapp, then roared through to the championship final before losing at the last gasp to Scotland’s Hammy McMillan.
Stoughton won eight straight in his Worlds debut at Hamilton in 1996 before losing to Switzerland, then proceeded to win the remainder of his assignments, including the planetary title.
“We’ve won seven in a row, that’s not too bad,” said Stoughton. “You either feed off the big crowd here or you don’t. But how do you not smile in this kind of atmosphere. It was buzzing, and it was fun. We’re in a pretty good spot. We’d love to get into the (Page) One-Two (playoff) game by winning two (Wednesday) and having a little more relaxing last day (Thursday).”
The Canadian comportment on the Brandt freeze to date suggests Stoughton has as good a chance as anybody to become the first skip since Winnipeg arch-rival Kerry Burtnyk to run the table without a defeat. Burtnyk’s 11-0 sweep occurred at Brandon in 1995, the first since Rick Folk’s 10-0 romp at Moncton in 1980.
Scotland’s Tom Brewster exhibited few signs Tuesday night of becoming the guy to inhibit a Canadian winning streak at this event. He was the victim of a precise Stoughton runback double in the first end and was on his back feet after blowing a draw for one in the second end and yielding a single and a 3-0 spot.
“It was good to get off to that start with a deuce and we didn’t let them get back into it,” said Stoughton. “It’s curling 101, basically. The ice is usually at its best in the early ends, you make the tough shots, get up early and run it. We go for it every time we have last rock right off the hop. We score two or three, go aggressive at the start, make the other guys make a big shot in the first end. When they don’t make it, we have been fortunate enough to make it.”