McEwen edges Dunstone to advance to Brier semifinal

Saskatchewan’s Mike McEwen is walking on the edge at the 2024 Montana’s Brier this weekend, but he’s staying upright, hanging on Saturday with a 6-5 win against Matt Dunstone’s Manitoba rink.

The loss in the 3-4 Page playoff game eliminated Dunstone from the Canadian men’s curling championship.

Dunstone appeared emotional after the dame, saying they just weren’t sharp enough.

“You just kind of wonder when it’s going to be your time, you know,” said Dunstone, who has yet to win the title in six Brier appearances.

McEwen’s Saskatoon Nutana rink of Colton Flasch, Kevin Marsh and Dan Marsh move on to the semifinal Sunday at noon, when they’ll take on Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher.

Bottcher lost 7-3 to Canada’s Brad Gushue in the 1-2 Page playoff game Saturday evening. That result sent Gushue directly to the final.

McEwen will need to win again Sunday afternoon to make it to the final Sunday night.

Saskatchewan started off struggling a bit Saturday but straightened things out for a while, with the players making several difficult, technical shots. The home team led 3-1 after four ends.

In the fifth, the crowd at the Brandt Centre erupted when McEwen made a double off his own rock to knock out a buried Manitoba stone that had been shot. Saskatchewan stole one to go up 4-1.

After another steal in the sixth, McEwen missed his last shot in the seventh, giving Dunstone an opportunity for two. The former Saskatchewan skip took advantage of with a draw to cut the deficit to 5-3.

The game got tight as the later ends ticked past with Dunstone managing to steal one in each of the eighth and ninth ends to tie the score.

Saskatchewan had the hammer in the 10th end, which came down to the last shot with Manitoba stones piled up in the house. McEwen threw for a nose hit to sit shot by an inch or two as the crowd went wild again.

“Mike is playing so good right now; he’s the best player in this building, for sure, hands down. We’ve just got to keep giving him a chance to win and I thought that was probably our best overall game of the week,” Flasch said.

McEwen was all smiles when he came off the ice. He had a shot to win the game in the eighth end but missed it, and said maybe it was a good thing.

“Sometime you don’t know what’s good for you. Maybe it’s good that I missed that because I had to make a shot that, for all intents and purposes, might be what it feels like to have a shot to win the Brier,” he said.

It’s been a long road back to the semifinal for McEwen, so he said it means a lot.

“This is the best building that I’ve ever played in – St. John’s was amazing, but I wasn’t the home team – so this is better,” he said with a laugh.

“It’s going to go down as one of by best memories ever in my whole career no matter how this ends.”

McEwen finished at the top of Pool B with a 7-1 round-robin record, but lost 9-7 to Bottcher in a 1-2 qualifying game Friday afternoon. McEwen then pushed in a convincing 7-0 win against the Northwest Territories’ Jamie Koe on Friday night in the 3-4 qualifier.

Saskatchewan is trying to snap a 44-year title drought at the Canadian men’s championship.

McEwen said his team was pushed to the limit in the Saturday afternoon game and that was a good thing.

“We just have to … draw on some things we did well this game for whoever (we’re) playing the semi. We’ll be right in the mix. I expect to have to play an A+ game to win but we’ve done that multiple times through the week, so we don’t have to do anything new (and) we’ve done it already. Hopefully that’s what comes out from the team (Sunday),” said McEwen.