Onto the Final 4! 

Team McEwen rides early hot streak into semifinals at 2024 PointsBet Invitational

It’s only September, and yet it would be hard to blame Mike McEwen and his sharpshooting Saskatoon team for having visions of March 2025 — or, for that matter, visions of November 2025 — dancing between his ears. 

That’s what a white-hot start to a curling season will do a for a skip, and it continued Friday night at the WinSport Event Centre, where McEwen, third Colton Flasch, second/vice-skip Kevin Marsh and lead Daniel Marsh, seeded third in the 16-team field, advanced to the Final 4 of the 2024 PointsBet Invitational with a 10-3 win over No. 11 seed Team Félix Asselin (Glenmore, Valleyfield, Etchemin and Des Collines clubs in Quebec). 

With the victory, Team McEwen pockets an additional $6,000 to go with the $3,000 it picked up for advancing from the Sweep 16, and will take on Calgary’s Team Brad Jacobs in a semifinal Saturday at 8 p.m. (all times Mountain). 

Coming off two straight World Curling Tour victories (at the Saville Shootout in Edmonton and the ATB Okotoks Classic in Okotoks, Alta.), Team McEwen was riding an undeniable wave of momentum into the PointsBet Invitational. 

The team has already qualified for the 2025 Montana’s Brier Feb. 28-March 9 in Kelowna, B.C., on the strength of a silver-medal finish at the 2024 Montana’s Brier last March in Regina. 

And it’s hard not to see this team earning its way into the 2025 Canadian Curling Trials, Nov. 22-30 in Halifax, where Canada’s four-player men’s and women’s teams for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy. 

With all of those baubles on the horizon, McEwen is well aware that the hard work his team has put in early this season is on its way to paying off down the road, and yes, there’s some anticipation of that road ahead. 

“Sure, why not? I get excited for that; it’s good motivation,” he said. “But you bring yourself back to right here, right now, that rock, that end. But it’s fun to look forward, too. There’s a lot of big events coming up, and we’re standing in one right now. The season doesn’t ride just on March in Kelowna; there are a lot of things to battle for. There’s a great purse on the line this week; there are (Canadian Team Ranking System) points, and those are kind of a commodity. Everything matters. So, we’re really excited for the here and now, but those things in the future are fun to look forward to.” 

Against Team Asselin, Team McEwen took control by stealing three in the fourth end when Asselin came up light on his last-rock draw. Team McEwen added a four in the sixth and sailed home for the win, showing the same kind of form that has made it a memorable September. 

“We’re just kind of continuing what we’ve been training on; to be honest, it was nice to be able to see us kind of get out of trouble in the first couple of ends (Friday),” said McEwen. “It wasn’t like it was messy; we just didn’t really generate any offence. But we made some clean-up shots and controlled the scoreboard until we had an opportunity later. But we had to make some precise shots to put some pressure on Félix and he missed an uncharacteristic draw and the floodgates kind of opened.” 

Next up is the second-seeded new-look Team Jacobs — Jacobs stepped in to replace Brendan Bottcher at skip, joining vice-skip Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant, lead Ben Hebert — and it’ll be the first matchup of the season between the teams. 

Team Jacobs reached the Final 4 with a 6-2 win over No. 10-seeded Team Owen Purcell of Halifax. 

“I’m really looking forward to it,” said a smiling McEwen. “It gets the blood flowing when you get to play Brad, to be quite honest. I get excited to play those kinds of teams; it’s not like, ‘Oh, no, we have to play Brad.’ I’m pumped. That’s who we want to play.” 

The other Final 4 pairing will see top-seeded Team Brad Gushue (St. John’s, N.L.) battle the young upstarts from Winnipeg, 13th-seeded Team Jordon McDonald. 

Team McDonald, fresh off its Sweep 16 upset of Team Matt Dunstone of Winnipeg, played giant-killer again Friday night, dispatching No. 5 seed Team Kevin Koe of Calgary with an 8-4 win. 

Team Gushue, meanwhile, rolled to a 10-4 win over No. 9-seeded Team Rylan Kleiter of Saskatoon 

The 2024 PointsBet Invitational continues Saturday with the women’s Final 4 at 1 p.m. and the men’s Final 4 at 8 p.m. 

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2024 PointsBet Invitational are available by CLICKING HERE. 

TSN and RDS will provide coverage of the 2024 PointsBet Invitational. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule. 

For ticket information for the 2024 PointsBet Invitational, go to www.curling.ca/2024pointsbetinvitational/tickets/. 

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2024pointsbetinvitational/nouvelles/?lang=fr