McEwen edged out of Olympic spot

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This article was published 10/12/2017 (3058 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Mike McEwen was good. Exceptionally good. Damn near perfect, in fact.

But in the toughest bonspiel in Canada, even near perfect wasn’t good enough on a night when Calgary’s Kevin Koe and the rest of a deep, talented and very experienced lineup would not be denied.

And so in the end, a skip famous for losing big game finals lost the biggest final in Canadian curling here Sunday night, falling 7-6 to Koe in the final of the Roar of the Rings.

The win sends Koe and his team — third Marc Kennedy, second Brent Laing and lead Ben Hebert — to Korea, where they will represent Canada in men’s curling at the 2018 Winter Olympics in February.

It will be the second trip for Kennedy and Hebert — who won gold with Kevin Martin in 2010; it will be the first Olympics for Koe and Laing.

And McEwen? Well, he will have the satisfaction of knowing that while this one will go in the books as yet another loss in yet another big game, this time — unlike so many of those others — he and his team — third B.J. Neufeld, second Matt Wozniak and lead Denni Neufeld — didn’t beat themselves.

On the contrary, in fact: McEwen’s foursome — and McEwen in particular — was outstanding all night long. One night after he shot what his teammates and his opponent, Brad Gushue, all described as the best game of his life in the semifinal, McEwen shot another one just like it in the final.

He was perfect — 100 per cent — through a very challenging first five ends. He was almost as good the second five, finishing the night an astounding 95 percent.

You know who shoots 95 percent at the skip position in a final of this magnitude and loses? No one, except hard-luck McEwen on a night he had the misfortune to play a Koe team that had been the best here all week long and were just a tiny bit better one last time.

It tells you all you need to know about McEwen on this night that Koe needed to draw the four-foot — with the last rock of the game and facing two McEwen counters — to escape with the narrowest of victories.

It tells you all you need to know about Canada’s chances to win a fourth straight gold medal at the Winter Olympics in men’s curling that Koe made it.

It’s worth noting — and is to his everlasting credit — that McEwen was as good off the ice as he was on it on this night.

Having just absorbed a crushing defeat in an event where there really is no second place, McEwen easily could have ducked the media afterward and no one would have made much of it.

But he sucked it up and made the long walk to a waiting throng of jackals, all of whom wanted answers from a man who really didn’t have one.

What happened? Koe happened. And McEwen said he was okay with that.

“Played my heart out, did everything I could. We win and die as a team. And we just didn’t quite generate enough opportunities. They played really well.

“It was tough out there.”

Yeah, it was. The Koe foursome shot a blistering 88 per cent as a team. McEwen’s squad shot 83 per cent and if you’re looking for a scapegoat, you’d probably look to the middle of McEwen’s lineup.

Wozniak missed both his shots in a critical ninth end and finished the night at just 66 per cent. B.J. Neufeld had some big misses too, finishing just 78 per cent.

At another time and another place, this McEwen team would have been pointing fingers and unravelling before our very eyes long before Koe threw that last rock in the tenth end.

Five times between 2010 and 2015, this squad lost provincial finals while eating themselves alive. This time it was different.

Because this time, an opponent beat them instead of themselves. And that, McEwen reflected last night, was a victory all on its own.

“Exactly. I felt like we stuck together, we grinded as best we could, we managed the game as best we could given the shots that were there. There was misses, there was makes but we didn’t beat ourselves in our headspace.

“I thought that was a win for us this week. One hundred percent. That’s what we wanted to do this week and we succeeded in doing that.

“We gave ourselves the best chance to win this.”

There’s lots still left for McEwen and his team. McEwen and wife, Dawn — the lead on Jennifer Jones team — have a berth in next month’s Canadian mixed doubles trials in Portage, where Canada’s team for the new Olympic medal sport will be determined.

Another chance at the Olympics?

“I don’t even know if I’m good at mixed doubles,” McEwen laughed. “Four person curling is the heart and soul of what I love to do in this sport. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to give my best at mixed doubles. But it’s not a consolation.”

And then there’s the Manitoba men’s playdowns, where — if a mixed doubles Olympics berth doesn’t conflict — this team will try to win its third straight Manitoba men’s title.

But who’s kidding who — the real prize in Canadian curling was won and lost here Sunday night in a remarkable test of a Canadian champion.

McEwen lost. Again. But his team also notched a victory, over their own demons.

“I’m already over it,” McEwen insisted. “I know it sounds fake. It sounds surreal. But I was prepared for the emotions of winning and losing either way. Hundred percent — that’s genuine and real. I’m okay.”

OK? He was damn near perfect on this night.

But another skip is going to the Olympics.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek