Manitoba’s McEwen undefeated no longer

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This article was published 07/03/2017 (3353 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Mike McEwen pulled off an eye-popping escape Tuesday morning but couldn’t find the handle to the trap door in the evening.

The 36-year-old skip and his Manitoba teammates are undefeated no more at the 2017 Brier national men’s curling championship, splitting a pair of games at Mile One Centre.

McEwen is 5-1 and sits atop the round-robin standings, while Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs has five wins as well to go with two defeats.

Rolling along nicely after three days of play, the Winnipeg team hit the skids with some uncharacteristically sloppy play — they wiggled out of trouble once but couldn’t execute another miracle comeback.

Trailing 7-3 after seven ends to New Brunswick, McEwen’s crew of third B.J. Neufeld, second Matt Wozniak and lead Denni Neufeld posted three straight deuces to defeat veteran skip Mike Kennedy and his Fredericton foursome 9-7.

On a wild late draw — as Brad Gushue and his crew sent the crowd into a frenzy with every shot made just a few sheets over — McEwen fell behind John Morris of British Columbia 5-1 after four ends and couldn’t claw back. Morris registered a 7-5 triumph.

McEwen said there was no magic left at the end of Day 4.

“That would have been quite a feat to come back again, down from 5-1,” said the Fort Rouge skip. “That’s not going to happen hardly ever against any of the top-five teams here. We just haven’t been very good in the first three or four ends.

“We’re too good of a team to continue at this pace. We’re gonna find it, eventually. So, we’ve got a big game (Wednesday) against Northern Ontario, so we’ll find it then.”

The road to the playoffs becomes increasingly treacherous for McEwen, whose list of opponents still ahead reads like a who’s who of curling Titans.

On Wednesday, Manitoba battles 2013 Brier champion and 2014 Olympic gold medallist Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario and a plucky Nova Scotia squad, led by skip Jamie Murphy (2-4), that won four straight pre-qualifying games late last week and has opened up some eyes here.

On Thursday, Manitoba tangles with Team Canada’s Kevin Koe (4-2), the reigning world championship from Calgary, and then faces four-time Brier and world champion Glenn Howard of Ontario (1-5), who is struggling mightily but is still dangerous.

McEwen closes out the round robin against fiery Jean-Michel Ménard of Quebec (4-2), who captured the Canadian crown in 2006 before losing the world final to David Murdoch of Scotland

“It’s a long event and it’s tough to go undefeated, almost impossible,” offered Denni Neufeld. “You’re going to have an off day and this was ours. We’re happy where we are, we’re excited about (Wednesday)…”

We get the morning off, so we’ll get a good night sleep and come out ready to rock.”

McEwen and crew came up a victory short of matching the sensational start of their female counterparts from Manitoba last month in St. Catharines, Ont. Michelle Englot’s crew went 6-0 to begin the Scotties national championship before dropping its first and only round-robin game to Team Canada’s Chelsea Carey.

Meanwhile, Gushue and his Newfoundland-Labrador teammates (4-2) have gained rock-star status this week.

The hometown favourites gassed their morning game, losing 8-4 to previously winless Jamie Koe of Northwest Territories (1-5), but rebounded with a sensational 7-5 triumph over Jacobs in the evening.

A pivotal deuce in the fifth end was created after Northern Ontario lead Ryan Harnden, leaning hard to sweep, took a spill and burned his skip’s final stone, giving Gushue and free draw and a 4-2 lead.

“I can be sympathetic. It can happen to anybody,” said Gushue. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s also a little bit nice when it happens for you.”

Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher (3-4) pulled off a shocker, knocking off Canada 6-4 in the late draw, while Saskatchewan’s Adam Casey posted a monster five in the sixth end to demolish hall-of-famer Howard 9-5

The 54-year-old curling legend said he’s left without answers.

“To be 1-5, I’m shocked. I haven’t felt like we should be there,” said Howard. “I felt we’ve played better than our record, but that’s the way it is. We’re kind of down one step all year and the guys here are just so much better now, it’s amazing. There’s no room for error.”

The 12-team round-robin wraps up Friday morning. Assuming no tie-breakers are required, the 1 vs. 2 Page playoff game is slated for Friday at 5:30 p.m. The 3 vs. 4 game goes Saturday at 12:30 p.m., with the semifinal set for 5:30 p.m.

The battle that gets the least amount of love, the bronze-medal match, is scheduled for Sunday at 12:30 p.m., with the Canadian final to be staged at 5:30 p.m.

 

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell