Gunnlaugson keeps rolling, stays perfect at Brier

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This article was published 10/03/2021 (1872 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

JASON Gunnlaugson’s magical run at the 2021 Brier in Calgary continued Tuesday.

The Morris-based skip thumped Gregory Skauge of Northwest Territories 7-4 in the morning draw and followed that up with an 8-4 triumph over New Brunswick’s James Grattan in the nightcap at Calgary’s WinSport Arena.

Gunnlaugson, seeking Team Manitoba’s first national men’s curling championship since Jeff Stoughton accomplished the feat in 2011, is now 5-0 and sits alone atop Pool A.

Grattan is second at 4-2.

West St. Paul’s Mike McEwen, skipping the Wild-card 1 team, fell to 2-3 in Pool A after a 6-5 loss in the morning draw to Glenn Howard’s Wild-card 3 team from Ontario. It was McEwen’s only game of the day.

Kevin Koe’s Wild Card 2 squad improved to 5-0 to lead Pool B, followed by Ontario’s John Epping and Saskatchewan’s Matt Dunstone at 4-1.

Team Manitoba has an afternoon showdown with Northern Ontario heavyweight Brad Jacobs (4-2) in the lone Wednesday game for both teams.

“I’m really enjoying the week,” said third Adam Casey after Manitoba beat Skauge. “I think we’ve got a great group of guys. Being back in the third position, I don’t think I’ve played there since the juniors but it is a good fit with Jay and (second) Matt (Wozniak) and (lead) Connor (Njegovan)…

“It’s natural and it’s easy to go to liaison back and forth between three buddies. It’s a fun spot to be in, to call line on Jay and getting to sweep a little and doing a bit everything.”

Against New Brunswick, the Manitobans outcurled their opponents 88 to 70 per cent, with Njegovan (92-73), Wozniak (97-78), Casey (84-67) and Gunnlaugson (78-63) all winning the positional battle.

Earlier, skip Wayne Middaugh’s triple provided the game-winning deuce in the 10th end to lift the Howard team past McEwen. McEwen was a bit heavy with his final rock, leaving the door open for Middaugh.

“Unfortunately it was teed up,” said McEwen. “As long as he didn’t wreck he could almost have hit it anywhere and it worked. Unfortunately, if mine is two inches higher or two inches deeper, he doesn’t have it. It feels like another unfortunate (thing), kind of similar to what happened to us against Gunnlaugson (an 8-5 loss Monday afternoon).

“One rock that just needed to be a couple inches different and I’m not sure he has even a shot, nevermind the win, but a really difficult shot to get one to go to the extra (end). Having said that, you do need those things to go right for you in a Brier but you need to combine that with good performances in general and it’s still not quite there for us in the unit.”

McEwen’s path to the championship round is trickier with only three round-robin games remaining. He faces Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher (3-2) his lone game Wednesday afternoon.

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“It looks daunting,” said McEwen. “Realistically, we need to win out and Team Bottcher (is) obviously one of the best teams in the world.

“They’re one of our peers and we’ve got to beat ’em tomorrow. I’m not sure how it will shake out from there but we need to win our last three and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s still necessary to win a tiebreaker after that point.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14