Sunday, December 2, 2001
Morris a big fan of Manitoba
By TODD SAELHOF -- Ottawa Sun
Bring on Jeff Stoughton or any other Manitoba rink that dares stand in the way of John Morris' Olympic dreams.
For the second straight game tied to a possible berth in the 2002 Winter Olympics, Ottawa's Morris topped a Manitoba team -- this time Kerry Burtnyk 7-6 yesterday to open the Canadian Olympic curling trials in Regina.
To reach the trials, Morris beat Manitoba's Vic Peters 5-3 in the 2000 Maritime Curling Classic in Halifax.
Against Burtnyk, Morris of the Ottawa Curling Club and his rink of third Joseph Frans, second Craig Savill and lead Brent Laing held on to win despite a near-perfect spill of rocks from the house in the 10th end.
After Morris counted three in the ninth end, Burtnyk faced three Morris rocks with the game's final rock.
The Manitoba skip spilled two and nearly the third one before his own rolled out of counting position.
"We're not going to get an easy game here," said the 22-year-old Morris. "We have to make sure we take it one game at a time."
The 1998 world junior curling champion also counted two with last-rock advantage in the first end and one each in the fourth and fifth ends in helping his game-high 88% shooting efficiency.
Today, Morris continues his nine-game, round-robin schedule against defending Brier champion Randy Ferbey, a 6-3 winner over Stoughton.
Playoffs begin Friday with the final next Sunday.
2002 Games Curling Coverage
