News Champions Cup

CALGARY — John Morris might be taking a hiatus from men’s play after this season but he’s not going down without a fight.

The two-time Olympic gold medallist from nearby Canmore, Alta., is filling in at third on Reid Carruthers’s team at the season finale Humpty’s Champions Cup at WinSport Arena.

Morris threw a stellar 94 percent Friday afternoon to help the Winnipeg squad earn its first win of the tournament downing world junior champ Tyler Tardi 8-4.

“We needed that one big time,” said Morris, who is playing his first event since earning mixed doubles gold at the Pyeongchang Winter Games. “You’ve got to earn your keep on the men’s tour. That’s what I learned from getting my butt whooped by Wayne Middaugh, Russ Howard, Ed Werenich and Kevin Martin for a few years out of juniors.

“It’s something that you’ve got to make sure you stay positive, keep working hard and the wins will start coming.”

Team Carruthers (1-2) isn’t out of the woods yet and still needs to defeat Team Gushue in the last round-robin draw during the evening to stay in contention.

“It’s been such a fun event so far even though we’re 1-2,” Morris said. “We’re just having fun and telling some good stories. We’ve played on a few different teams so we have some good stories that I won’t share with you here but there have been some beauty stories and we’re having a lot of fun.

“We had a great one in that game. If we play like that then I like our chances of making the playoffs here.”

Morris, who captured back-to-back Canadian and world junior titles in 1998 and 1999, said it was great getting the opportunity to take on the current double defending national junior champion from Langley, B.C.

“I think it’s a good testament to that team’s strengths,” Morris said. “To win the country twice in juniors is not an easy feat no matter when it’s done. I know that B.C. is very proud of them and they’ve got a great future.”

Carruthers started with the hammer and converted with a three count after Tardi (1-2) couldn’t navigate through the port in the first frame, crashing on a guard, and opened the door for the 2016 Humpty’s Champions Cup winner to capitalize and draw for the trio.

With two Carruthers counters covered in the third, Tardi drew for one and landed on the lid. Carruthers drew for a deuce in the fourth end and Tardi tapped for two in the fifth to close the gap 5-3.

Carruthers hit for another three-pointer in six to put the game out of reach and Tardi went for style points in seven pulling off a spin-a-rama to score a single.

Third Braeden Moskowy left Team Carruthers in March and all-time great Jeff Stoughton returned to action subbing at the Princess Auto Elite 10 and Players’ Championship. Seven-time Grand Slam champion Mike McEwen joins the club next season at fourth with Carruthers sliding over to third and calling the game.

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Elsewhere, GSOC Bonus Cup champion Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., grabbed a playoff spot with a 7-2 decision over American Team Persinger, skipped by third Rich Ruohonen.

Gushue (3-0) qualified with one group game left to spare against Carruthers while Team Persinger (2-2) stays in the mix for tiebreakers or the quarterfinals (pending the results of the remaining round-robin draws).

Scotland’s Bruce Mouat (4-0) remained red hot with a 6-2 set over Marc Pfister (0-4) of Switzerland.

In women’s play, Edmonton’s Val Sweeting (2-2) is still in it after scoring three in the seventh and stealing in the eighth to lift past Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland 6-5.

It’s the final event together for Team Sweeting with the skip joining Winnipeg’s Kerri Einarson at third next season, second Dana Ferguson and lead Rachel Brown linking up with Calgary’s Chelsea Carey, and third Lori Olson-Johns taking a step back from competitive curling.

Tirinzoni (3-1) had already qualified for the playoffs.

Switzerland’s Alina Paetz (2-2) also remained in contention with a 7-5 win over Japan’s Team Fujisawa (0-4). Third Chinami Yoshida was skipping the squad with Satsuki Fujisawa in Sweden for the world mixed doubles championship. Alternate Mari Motohashi came off of the bench to play third.

The Humpty’s Champions Cup features 15 men’s teams and 15 women’s teams that won events over the course of the season in order to qualify for entry. Teams play four round-robin games with the top eight overall advancing to the weekend playoffs.

Round-robin action continues at 4 p.m. MT at WinSport Arena with broadcast coverage exclusively online at Sportsnet Now (Canada) and Yare TV (international).