Saskatchewan’s Team McEwen riding big win streak at 2025 Montana’s Brier

This time last year, the chatter around the Brandt Centre in Regina was about the surprising Saskatchewan team skipped by Mike McEwen at the 2024 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI.

Four good curlers, to be sure, but it was a first-year lineup that perhaps lacked the reps playing together that had been compiled by many of the other teams gathered in the Queen City.

All that team did, of course, was reach the gold-medal game before falling short to Team Brad Gushue.

Twelve months later, there is absolutely nothing surprising about Team Saskatchewan-McEwen’s performance at the 2025 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI, at the Prospera Centre in Kelowna, B.C.

McEwen and his Saskatoon lineup of third Colton Flasch, second/vice-skip Kevin Marsh, lead Daniel Marsh, alternate Brent Laing and coach Pat Simmons have yet to lose in six outings, their latest victory coming Tuesday night, a tidy 14-2 win over the Northwest Territories’ Team Aaron Bartling (0-5; Hay River).

With the win, Team McEwen took a massive step toward locking down one of the three available playoff berths available in Pool B, which it leads with that perfect 6-0 record, with Alberta’s Team Brad Jacobs (Calgary) close behind at 5-0, and confirmed, for any remaining doubters, that the surprise element is no longer in play.

“I’m sure we’re not a surprise now,” said McEwen with a smile. “Hopefully the best is to be seen it out of us this week but, yeah, we’ve all had good individual performances and I think we’re building towards getting to a point where all four of us together are playing well.”

They’ve seemed awfully close to that point thus far this week and Tuesday night was another example.

Team McEwen raced into an early lead as the toe-sliding skipper made an open draw to score three in the first end and added a hit for a pair in the third, followed in successful by a steal of one in the fourth and three more in the fifth.

McEwen’s toughest shot didn’t come until the seventh when he made a precise angle-raise takeout to score four and put the game out of reach. A steal of one in the eighth prompted the concession from the Northwest Territories.

The second season together got off to a superb start in late September in Calgary, where Team McEwen claimed first place and the $50,000 top prize at the 2024 PointsBet Invitational.

The team has been a consistent performer all season and arrived in Kelowna as the No. 3 team on the Canadian Team Ranking System and No. 6 in the World team rankings.

But the team’s success goes beyond wins and losses; it’s a group that genuinely enjoys each other’s company, said McEwen, and that’s been a factor in its on-ice performance.

“I like to think we have the best team dynamics of any Canadian team, so, yeah I would say that’s our mojo,” said McEwen. “We do feel we’re bigger than the sum of our parts. I think if we’re being honest, when we were ranked 25th or 30th in the world or whatever we were when we started this team and we’ve shot up to you know top six in the world, I would say we probably exceeded our expectations of that trajectory. We’re very happy with our growth, how quick it came. I think we exceeded expectations, but then the expectations get bigger.”

It’s a run of success that should clinch a berth in the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials in November in Halifax, and perhaps a return trip as a pre-qualified team at the 2026 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI, in St. John’s, N.L.

But that’s for another day. In the immediate future, Team McEwen will close out round-robin play with two tantalizing assignments: Wednesday afternoon against its provincial rival, Team Saskatchewan-Kleiter skipped by Rylan Kleiter (3-2; Saskatoon), and then a Thursday night showdown with Team Alberta-Jacobs.

“We want to come into the playoffs clean,” said McEwen. “I mean that can mean hammer (in the playoffs), so there’s implications of having a clean record. So, yeah, big two games coming up.”

In other Tuesday night games, Team Alberta-Jacobs remained perfect, scoring a big four in the seventh end en route to a 7-3 win over Nova Scotia’s Team Owen Purcell (2-3; Halifax); Team Saskatchewan-Kleiter won a battle of up-and-coming teams, scoring three in the seventh end and stealing two in the eighth in a 9-4 win over Ontario’s Team Sam Mooibroek (3-2; Whitby); and the Yukon’s Team Thomas Scoffin (2-4; Whitehorse) scored back-to-back deuces in the ninth and 10th ends for an 8-5 win over Prince Edward Island’s Team Tyler Smith (0-6; Crapaud).

Québec’s Team Félix Asselin (3-2; Glenmore/Valleyfield/Etchemin/Des Collines/Belvedere) had the Pool B bye on Tuesday night.

The Montana’s Brier continues Wednesday with draws at 8:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. (all times Pacific).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2025 Montana’s Brier are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/.

TSN and RDS2 will provide complete coverage of the 2025 Montana’s Brier. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2025 Montana’s Brier, go to www.curling.ca/2025brier/tickets/

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2025brier/nouvelles/?lang=fr