It wouldn’t be the Original 16 Cash League playoffs if there wasn’t at least one first-round upset, and it was Rod Montgomery’s first-year crew that came away with the surprise win on Wednesday night.
Montgomery entered the playoffs at the Moose Jaw Curling Centre as the 10th seed, but the two-time former Tankard champion was able to put his big-game experience to good use, battling to a 7-6 victory over seventh-seed Stan Barnsley and Pro-Tec Electric.
Barnsley got off to a good start, building a 3-1 lead through four ends, but a Montgomery three-spot in the fifth would give his rink the lead heading down the stretch. Barnsley got back within one with a deuce in the sixth and tied things up in the seventh, but Montgomery would put the hammer to good use and pick up his deuce for the one-point win.
Things weren’t quite as dramatic in the other three first-round matches Wednesday.
Pups Parlour (Jaedon Miller, eighth seed) put together an impressive comeback to take a 9-6 win over Fountain Tire (Barry Silk, ninth seed). Silk trailed 4-2 through four ends but put up four in the fifth to take a 6-4 lead. Miller got right back into the swing of things with three in the sixth and then stole a pair in the seventh before running Silk out of rocks in the final end.
John’s Music (Ryan Wenarchuk, sixth seed) used a huge end to pave the way to a 10-3 win over EMJ Marketing (Joe Gunnis, 11th seed). Trailing 1-0 after the first end, Wenarchuk would use the hammer to put up six in the second, and after Gunnis got two back in the third, tacked on another four in the fourth, bringing things to an early end.
With Dayne Heisler from R.K. Sunview Farms currently in action at the Saskatchewan Winter Games, they opted to take a forfeit loss to KMS Construction (Ben Gamble, fifth seed) in their first-round match.
The top four teams all received byes through the first round but were in action in a pair of exhibition games.
BTN Accountants (Penny Barker, first seed) made a quick night of it against ProTec Studios (Tyler Krupski, second seed), building a 4-0 lead through the first three ends, and after Krupski got a pair back in the fourth, putting a four-spot up in the fifth to secure the win.
KalTire (Dustin Woloschuk, fourth seed) got on a roll in the middle ends against Matt Froehlich (third seed) and would go on to a 7-3 win. Trailing 3-1, Woloschuk scored three in the fourth, stole one in the fifth and another two in the sixth for the four-point victory.
The quarter-finals are now set for Wednesday, Mar. 1 at the Moose Jaw Curling Centre, with BTN Accountants facing Pups Parlour, KMS Construction against KalTire, Froehlich taking on John’s Music and Montgomery facing ProTec Studios.
