McEwen’s Saskatchewan rink defeats Team Canada at 2024 Brier

Mike McEwen outdueled Brad Gushue as Saskatchewan knocked off the defending Canadian champions 7-6 on Saturday at the Montana’s Brier.

McEwen, who was good on 89 per cent of his shots, stole points in the fifth and sixth ends thanks to some sharpshooting from the Brandon product. Gushue, who has won five Brier titles, shot 68 per cent in part due to the shotmaking of Saskatchewan.

“I love how we played this game — it wasn’t sneaking out one. It was a solid team performance,” McEwen said. “We’ve got to take advantage of when Brad and his team aren’t at their best. They weren’t at their best tonight and we had a really good solid four-person performance.”

Gushue gave McEwen and Saskatchewan credit for how they played.

“Ultimately it came down that Mike outplayed me. Mike played really well and I didn’t play anywhere near as good as I usually do,” Gushue said. “(We have to) take it on the chin and come out ready tomorrow.

“They are a good team. I don’t want to say it was just because he had a great day and I had a bad day by any means but certainly that was the case out there today. I thought (McEwen) played really well and didn’t give us much of a chance. I felt like when I was in the hack, each end I was facing a lot of their rocks.”

But while it’s a good early Brier win for Saskatchewan, McEwen knows that beating Gushue on the first Saturday doesn’t mean it will translate to later in the week. At last year’s Brier, McEwen — who was skipping Ontario — defeated Gushue 6-4 in the round-robin. Gushue later beat McEwen 9-3 to win their pool.

“I’ve had a pretty good record against Brad — I think that may be my third or fourth win early in a Brier against him. I’ve got to improve on the later ones. That’s where they really count,” McEwen said. “I fully expect to have to go through him if we are playing on playoff weekend.”

After a 7-6 win over Prince Edward Island on Friday night, Saskatchewan’s rink — comprising McEwen, third Colton Flasch, second Kevin Marsh and lead Dan Marsh — started things on the right foot to start its game against Team Canada at the Brandt Centre in Draw 3 of the Canadian men’s curling championship.

Saskatchewan scored a deuce in the first end.

The McEwen rink appeared set to steal as many as five in the second end, but McEwen’s last rock rolled just enough to leave room for Gushue to throw a draw and score a point.

Team Canada was on the brink of stealing three in the third, but McEwen made a difficult double takeout to only give up one.

After Saskatchewan scored two in the fourth end, the fifth end saw a messy house. All but one rock was in play in the end.

With so many rocks in play, McEwen hit a runback that raised the fifth rock that was hit – a Saskatchewan red that ended up being the shot rock and a steal of one for the team in green.

McEwen remained the hot hand in the sixth end as well, making back-to-back difficult shots as Saskatchewan was able to once again steal a point from Team Canada.

Gushue finally found his way back onto the scoreboard after a draw for a single in the seventh. McEwen once again made two nearly perfect shots which had Saskatchewan sitting four ahead of Gushue’s final throw.

Saskatchewan scored a single in the eighth to extend its lead to 7-3.

Gushue scored a deuce in the ninth to cut into the lead a bit. McEwen made a hit with his last rock in the 10th to cut Gushue down to one.

With many highlight-reel shots, McEwen and Saskatchewan gave the Regina crowd a lot to cheer about.

“They were great. It’s hard to get more cheers than Team Canada. Brad is well-loved across the whole country and rarely do you get it where you have the crowd a percentage more than Brad. That’s tough, but in Saskatchewan, we have it,” McEwen said.

In the afternoon draw, Ontario’s Scott Howard defeated B.C.’s Catlin Schneider — who hails from Saskatchewan — by a score of 7-5, Reid Carruthers defeated Matt Dunstone 7-5 in a battle of Manitoba teams, Northern Ontario’s Trevor Bonot won 9-4 over New Brunswick’s James Grattan, and the No. 1-ranked Brendan Bottcher rink out of Alberta defeated Newfoundland and Labrador’s Andrew Symonds 11-3.

In the other three evening games, Alberta’s Kevin Koe defeated his brother Jamie Koe’s Northwest Territories rink 8-4, Julien Tremblay and Quebec beat Nunavut’s Shane Latimer 11-4, and Tyler Smith’s P.E.I. rink defeated Nova Scotia’s Matthew Manuel 11-7.

Saskatchewan (2-0) will take on Kevin Koe’s rink (1-1) on Sunday at 2 p.m.

“Going into this event, we know it’s going to take everything. I think we’re in a position where we have everything to give and I felt like we did that tonight,” McEwen said. “It’s going to be hard to do that all week. There’s going to be nothing left by the end of it. That’s going to be the challenge: Can we do it night in and night out?”