Gushue downs Mike McEwen to win Grand Slam of Curling Masters

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/11/2014 (4341 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SELKIRK, Man. — In a wild and woolly final, Newfoundland skip Brad Gushue emerged victorious over Manitoba’s Mike McEwen in the final at the Masters Grand Slam of Curling at the Selkirk Recreation Complex Sunday afternoon.
 
Still, let nobody say that the McEwen foursome didn’t put up a fight — such as when the skip threw a devastating sixth-end pistol that could be an early candidate for curling shot of the year.  
 
McEwen was trailing 6-2 in the sixth end, after Gushue’s rink pounced on a pile of mistakes to score four in the fifth. With little to lose, McEwen threw a huge triple-raise takeout to kick Gushue’s rocks out of the house, and score four of his own to carry a 6-6 tie into the seventh frame.

Later, McEwen agreed, it might be the best shot he’d ever made. “I can’t think of anything off the top of my head.”
 
Watching on the sidelines, Gushue felt the tension go up.

“Definitely made it good for the viewers at home, but made my nerves a little worse,” the skip said after the game. “I thought our team handled it really well in the seventh, played a really good end. That definitely put the momentum back on our side, to play the seventh the way we did.”
 
In the seventh end, McEwen could not hold off a Gushue deuce, and the Newfoundland skip through a double in the eighth to run McEwen out of rocks and clinch the 8-6 win.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Thursdays

Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter.

Sign up for Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Sign Up

I consent to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies.

I consent to CASL agreement.

“We got outplayed,” McEwen said after. “Hats off to team Gushue. They got us in all sorts of trouble… we had to get a little fortunate there too to keep that game close.”
 
Earlier in the day, Val Sweeting’s team from Alberta — which now includes third Cathy Overton-Clapham of Winnipeg — captured the women’s Masters championship with a 5-4 win over Sweden’s Margaretha Sigfridsson.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Melissa Martin
Reporter-at-large

Melissa Martin reports and opines for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Every piece of reporting Melissa produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.