CurlManitoba Hosting 2015 Safeway Championship

CurlManitoba is hosting the 2015 Safeway Championship February 4-8 at the Keystone Centre in Brandon, MB. The top 32 Men's teams in Manitoba will compete for an opportunity to represent Manitoba at the 2015 Tim Hortons Brier March February 28-March 8 at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, AB.

Three of Canada’s top ten men’s curling teams are the top three seeds in the draw which was announced today in Winnipeg.

Mike McEwen’s Fort Rouge team, ranked #1 on both the Canadian Team Ranking System and the WCT’s Order of Merit, has been made the top seed by the teams competing in the championship.

Acknowledging his status as defending champion skip, Jeff Stoughton-Charleswood and his new team are the second seed. Team Stoughton was #9 on the CTRS in mid-January at the time the seeding was done.

The third seed is Stoughton’s former teammate Reid Carruthers-West St. Paul, whose new team’s results this season have them ranked #4 on the CTRS.

The fourth seeded team is William Lyburn-Granite, also the fourth ranked Manitoba team and #21 overall on the Canadian Team Ranking System.

Sean Grassie-Deer Lodge, who was the finalist to Jeff Stoughton at the Safeway Championship in Neepawa in 2013 is seeded #5 while Scott Ramsay-Granite is #6.

The finalists in the 2014 Manitoba Curling Tour Championship have been ranked #7 and #8 in the Safeway Championship seeding. Daley Peters-West Kildonan was named the seventh seed while MCT Champion Dennis Bohn-Assinibione Memorial is eighth. The Bohn brothers were the finalist to Kerry Burtnyk at the 2008 Safeway Championship, the last time the event was in Brandon.

CurlManitoba’s partnership with Sportsnet will continue on the final weekend of the Safeway Championship.

The broadcast schedule will be:
February 7^th 7pm local/8pm ET - Sportsnet One
February 8^th 9am local/10am ET - Sportsnet One (bonus coverage on Sportsnet East/Ontario 11am – 12:30pm ET) – Semifinal
February 8^th 2:30pm local/3:30pm ET - Sportsnet East, Sportsnet Ontario – Final

Sportsnet’s on-air personalities will be Rob Faulds, Ray Turnbull, and Jennifer Jones.