Team McEwen red hot in big win at Montana’s Brier 

It’s an old sports axiom that the road to a championship goes through the defending champion, and Saturday evening, skip Mike McEwen drove his Mack truck toward a possible title at the 2024 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI.

McEwen, skipping the home side Team Saskatchewan (2-0, Saskatoon), made an early statement at this year’s Canadian men’s curling championship by scoring a convincing 7-6 win over skip Brad Gushue’s defending champions Team Canada (1-1, St. John’s, N.L.) in Pool B round-robin play at the Brandt Centre in Regina.

Now, with Gushue in the rear-view mirror, McEwen can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing one major hurdle has been leaped.

“I love how we played this game, it was a solid team performance,” said McEwen, supported by third Colton Flasch, second/vice-skip Kevin Marsh and lead Daniel Marsh. Pat Simmons is the team’s alternate and Brent Laing serves as coach.

McEwen admitted it’s going to be tough to duplicate the performance going forward.

“There’s going to be nothing left at the end of it so that’s the challenge, can we do that night out and night again, or morning, whenever we’re playing,” said McEwen. “It’s going to be big on recovering, resetting and doing that again and again and again.”

The game was one of four matchups in Pool B as the 18-team Montana’s Brier starts to pick up steam in the march to its climax next weekend.

Team Saskatchewan opened the Montana’s Brier on Friday evening with a 7-6 win over Team Prince Edward Island.

It’s not often that Canada’s Team Gushue gets bested, but it did Saturday night. Team Saskatchewan was on fire, making just about everything. The back end threw out a smorgasbord of shots that would have overwhelmed almost any other team, including doubles, straight-back runbacks, come-arounds and corner freezes.

It didn’t help that Gushue was off his game, shooting 70 per cent. McEwen, on the other hand, came in at 90 per cent.

“We need to take advantage of when Brad and his team are not at their best and they weren’t at their best tonight and we had a solid, four-person performance,” said McEwen. 

Gushue wasn’t about to do any hand-wringing over the loss, but he likes to get off to a fast start at any major competition, especially at the Montana’s Brier where only the top three teams in each of two nine-team pool make the playoffs.

“Ultimately, it came down Mike outplaying me,” said Gushue, who is supported by vice-skip Mark Nichols, second E.J. Harnden, lead Geoff Walker and coach Caleb Flaxey.

“Mike played really well. I didn’t play as well as I usually do, so I’ll take it on the chin and come out ready tomorrow. Mike and those guys are going to be battling for the playoffs and now they’re kind of two games ahead of us so that sucks. But we’re not in a terrible spot yet. If we can win the rest of our games you never know what might happen, but certainly we didn’t want to be behind the eight-ball this early.”

Gushue is looking for a record-extending sixth title as a skip, but at the same time aiming for a three-peat.

Saturday also marked the latest chapter in the Battle of the Koe brothers. Kevin and Jamie have crossed swords several times at the Montana’s Brier, and when the last brush stroke was completed, skip Kevin Koe’s Team Alberta-Koe (1-1, Calgary) had emerged with an 8-4 win over Team Northwest Territories (1-1, Yellowknife) skipped by Jamie Koe.

In another game, skip Tyler Smith’s Team Prince Edward Island (1-1, Crapaud) rebounded from an opening-round loss to Team Saskatchewan to trim Team Nova Scotia (0-2, Halifax), skipped by Matthew Manuel, 11-7.

Meanwhile, Team Quebec (1-1, Etchemin/Kénogami/Chicoutimi/Victoria), skipped by Julien Tremblay, scored an 11-4 win over skip Shane Latimer’s Team Nunavut (0-1, Iqaluit).

Team Alberta-Sluchinski, (1-0, Airdrie), skipped by Aaron Sluchinski, had the Pool B bye.

The winner on March 10 will represent Canada at the men’s world championship, March 30 to April 7, in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

The 2024 Montana’s Brier continues Saturday with draws at 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (all times Central).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2024 Montana’s Brier are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/

TSN and RDS will provide complete coverage of the 2024 Montana’s Brier. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule. Live coverage is also available for international streaming on TSN’s YouTube channel.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at https://www.curling.ca/?lang=fr