SLAM! Curling
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MIXED CHAMP.
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Hemmings, Stoughton battle
About the only thing determined off yesterday afternoon's draw was that Quebec's Guy Hemmings and Manitoba's Jeff Stoughton can finish no worse than a tie for first.
Hemmings eliminated Rich Moffatt of Ontario with a 7-4 win and Stoughton battled with Robert Campbell of P.E.I before escaping with an 8-7 win.
Gerald Shymko of Saskatchewan gave himself a chance to join the leading pack with a hairy 5-4 win over Bert Gretzinger of B.C.
Down 4-3 on last rock, Shymko had to skinny past a guard to execute a double and stuck for the game-winning deuce.
"Get by the guard, you're a hero,'' said Shymko about his most pressure-packed shot of the Brier. "Hit it and you're a zero. We needed the win, but it was kind of scary. We had about one-thousands of an inch going back by that guard - great sweeping, fantastic. What can I say? I'm tired for yelling.
"The double was really tough. We just had to slice that guard. The boys just pounded it for a while. I thought we were on the guard. There was no daylight when we went by.''
Stoughton seemed less dominating in squeaking out his pair of last-day wins, running his win streak to three games.
"We obviously can play a lot better,'' said Stoughton. "The positive side of it is we struggled and didn't come out with the greatest of games today, but we hung in and got our two wins.
"There's a few more games to go yet, so we'll see what we can do.''
That's when the fun began. Because Stoughton and Hemmings have the night draw off, they were asked to
ticipate in a shootout to determine a possible tie-breaker.
Stoughton was spooked by the changing ice conditions, but Hemmings decided to fire away before heading to the Brier Patch.
"We wanted to finish in the top two because of the Page System,'' said Hemmings, who will have to wait until after tonight's draw to see where he places.
"That was our goal at the beginning of the week. We kind of doubted it in the middle of the week (during a three-game losing streak). We've made it. If we finish third, we finish third, but I have to wish good luck to both those teams (Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia) tonight.''
Russ Howard of New Brunswick is the only other team with a chance to get in a tiebreaker. He must hope for a loss by either Saskatchewan or Nova Scotia.