The first games were played in the eight-team playoff round Friday evening at the 2025 Viterra Championship in Portage la Prairie with top-seed Reid Carruthers (Granite), #3 Braden Calvert (Fort Rouge), # 5 Brett Walter (Assiniboine Memorial), and Sean Grassie (Deer Lodge) winning their opening playoff games.
The top five seeds had all qualified for the playoff round although #2 Jordon McDonald (Assiniboine Memorial) and #4 Jacques Gauthier (West St. Paul) had both lost “A” side qualifiers and had to qualify through the “B” side.
Among the evening draw match-ups, three games were tied coming home while #3 Calvert led #2 McDonald by a single point coming home. Calvert had last rock and used it to hit for a single and an 8-6 win.
Carruthers, tied 4-4 coming home, also had a hit for a single to win 5-4 over #4 Gauthier.
Walter, led Jeff Stewart (Gladstone) 6-3 after scoring a four on the seventh end but gave up a deuce and steal of one more to be tied coming home enroute to a 7-6 win.
Sean Grassie was also tied 4-4 coming home but didn’t have to throw his final stone in a 6-4 win over Steve Irwin (Brandon).
On the early draw Friday, #1 seed Reid Carruthers (Granite), #3 seed Braden Calvert (Fort Rouge), #5 seed Brett Walter (Assiniboine Memorial), and Steve Irwin’s Brandon foursome had all won their third consecutive games to qualify for the playoff round.
The other four teams, Gauthier, McDonald, Stewart, and Grassie, came through the “B” side to qualify for the playoff round.
On Saturday morning at 9AM, Calvert will play Grassie and Carruthers will play Walter with the winners advancing to the Page Playoff format championship round. Stewart will play Gauthier and Irwin will play McDonald in a rematch of the game that sent McDonald to the “B” side of the draw.
