‘Lucky’ win keeps McEwen smiling

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This article was published 08/03/2016 (3735 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Mike McEwen was musing here Tuesday morning about how, with a record of 3-2, his Manitoba team wasn’t yet in a must-win situation, but they were “getting close.”

And then they appeared to draw perilously closer here Tuesday night, trailing Team Canada 4-2 playing the ninth end and in serious danger of falling to 3-3 and needing to win out the rest of the week or risk missing the weekend playoff round most Manitoba curling fans automatically expect from the province’s Brier representatives.

But just when it looked like McEwen was going to back himself into a very uncomfortable corner in his very first Brier, Team Canada completely unravelled.

An uncharacteristic miss by Canada third John Morris — a freeze attempt was too hot and sailed out the back of the house — set in motion a bizarre chain of events that ended with Manitoba posting a four-ender on the board and turning a two-point ninth-end deficit into what went into the books as an absolutely critical 6-4 Manitoba win.

The sound of at least one broom shattering in the Team Canada dressing could be heard from the hallway immediately following the game, but even all of that crashing couldn’t drown out the laughing Manitoba was doing about their good fortune.

“We obviously got a little but lucky out there. Everything kind of went our way in the end,” said Manitoba third B.J. Neufeld. “But we also made some really good shots and made our own luck a bit, too.”

McEwen said it was not possible to overstate how monumental the win over Canada was to Manitoba’s chances here this week. “That was huge. That might be a game-changer for us,” said McEwen. “We got a break, we got a bit lucky. But we also took advantage.

“And that is something we can really build on going into the rest of the week.”

The Manitoba win over Canada coupled with an extra-end Manitoba victory over Northwest Territories earlier Tuesday has Manitoba alone in third place at 4-2 heading into today, trailing only Newfoundland (5-1) and a Northern Ontario juggernaut that is still unbeaten at 6-0 and is somehow getting better as the week goes on.

So how big was the win over Canada? Well consider this: with three losses, Manitoba would have been facing must-win games the rest of the week at an event where four losses has disqualified a team from the playoffs in three of the last six Briers.

Instead, Manitoba now very much controls its own destiny heading into a pair of games today against Saskatchewan’s Steven Laycock (3-4) and B.C.’s Jim Cotter (2-4).

McEwen finishes up his first Brier round robin with games Thursday against Northern Ontario and Quebec and then one final game Friday morning against P.E.I.

With the way Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs is playing right now, McEwen said he desperately wants to avoid facing the 2014 Olympic gold medallists in a must-win round-robin game Thursday afternoon.

“I don’t want to get into a do-or-die game with Jacobs,” said McEwen. “Because that could go either way no matter how well you play. We really needed to get a two-win day today. And we did.”

McEwen said while his first goal is to make the Brier playoffs in an exceptionally difficult field, history has taught him that not all Brier Page playoff spots are created equal.

“Most of the Brier winners come out of the 1-2 game historically,” said McEwen. “As soon as you get into that 3-4 game, it gets a lot harder.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek