McEwen keeps his cool

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This article was published 09/03/2016 (3734 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — First, he had to overcome ice conditions that abruptly became unrecognizable Wednesday.

And then, Mike McEwen had to deal with — get this — an on-ice official who stole his broom between games at the Tim Hortons Brier Wednesday.

And yet through it all, McEwen kept his head about him and his eye on the prize, recording two more wins Wednesday — 6-5 over Saskatchewan on the afternoon draw and 8-3 over B.C. in the evening — to extend Manitoba’s winning streak to four games and improve their round-robin record to an impressive 6-2.

Every day is memorable when you’re playing in your first Brier. But even against that backdrop, McEwen is going to remember this one a little more vividly. And for the weirdest of reasons.

McEwen explained at day’s end that after his win over Saskatchewan, he forgot to pack his ‘target broom’ — the one he holds in the house, not the one he slides with — leaving it behind on the away end of the sheet he’d been playing on.

He said he realized immediately what he’d done when he returned to the ice a couple hours later to practise prior to the B.C. game and found the broom wasn’t in his bag. 

McEwen picks up the story from there. “We realized where we’d left it and so we asked the icemakers and the officials, and one of them remembered seeing one of the scorekeepers pick it up. And they thought it was odd that he had that broom.

“I guess he decided to take a souvenir. And he took it home with him.”

At that point, Manitoba coach Jon Mead swung into action. “He was on it. He was like Inspector Mead. He tracked it all down,” laughed McEwen.

Mead had the sheepish official contacted at home, and the broom was driven back to the rink, arriving in the third end and hand-delivered back to McEwen on the ice in the midst of his game against B.C.

McEwen said the situation would have been much more serious if the official had walked off with his one-of-a-kind throwing broom instead of a target broom he says is easily replaceable.

“It wasn’t a big deal. And we have backup brooms. But I was annoyed,” said McEwen. “We give away these game brooms to charities and fundraisers. We sign them, and people raise a lot of money with these brooms.

“So yeah, I was annoyed somebody would just take something like that. But if it was my throwing broom, I would have been irate.”

McEwen’s broom — and everyone else’s for that matter — got a major workout Wednesday as temperatures soared in Ottawa to 11 C and an afternoon rainstorm led to exceptionally humid conditions inside TD Place that caused frosty — and unpredictable — ice conditions.

Those are exactly the kinds of conditions that drive a precision team such as McEwen’s crazy, but the team adapted well and showed some veteran poise. “It was really tough out there,” said Manitoba third B.J. Neufeld.

‘It wasn’t a big deal. And we have back up brooms. But I was annoyed. We give away these game brooms to charities and fundraisers. We sign them and people raise a lot of money with these brooms’– Manitoba skip Mike McEwen 

“But we dealt with the conditions well. We showed a lot of patience. And nobody got too frustrated.”

Neufeld characterized the playing conditions Wednesday as the second-frostiest the team has ever played on. A Slam event in Newfoundland earlier this winter was the all-time worst, said Neufeld.

“We didn’t panic, and we didn’t blow our brains out,” said McEwen. “That was really nice to see.”

Manitoba heads into today alone in third place, trailing second-place Newfoundland (7-1) and a Northern Ontario juggernaut that has still yet to be beaten at 8-0.

Manitoba will take its shot against Northern Ontario this afternoon before playing Quebec this evening. Manitoba wraps up with a game against P.E.I. on the final round-robin draw Friday morning.

Manitoba needs two wins in their final three games to guarantee themselves a playoff spot.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek