McEwen foursome takes bronze at Brier

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This article was published 12/03/2017 (3348 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — They return home with a bronze medal, emblematic not, they say, of finishing third at the 2017 Brier but a resolve to learn from their mistakes.

Less than 24 hours after the most crippling loss of their careers, Mike McEwen and his teammates from Winnipeg’s Fort Rouge Curling Club rallied to defeat Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario 7-5 in an extra end Sunday afternoon at the Canadian men’s curling championship.

McEwen, the two-time reigning Manitoba champion, was left with a simple takeout for the victory after Jacobs’ final-rock freeze try overcurled and stopped on the button, open for easy removal, generating a huge cheer from the mostly pro-Manitoba crowd at Mile One Centre.

Afterward, the 36-year-old product of Brandon smiled as he met with reporters. But the pain suffered Saturday night, squandering an opportunity to punch a ticket to the national final with a bitter defeat to Team Canada, was still raw, he said.

“There’s been some bad Manitoba (losses) but that one was bad… even worse,” McEwen said. “Crazy stuff happens in life and you just have to move on. As a team, we’ve recovered from some pretty awful things, and (Sunday) was the first step of our recovery. I think we’ll be OK.

“As much as we were hurting pretty bad, and the fact we weren’t playing for the colour of medal we wanted to be playing for, we still gave it our all and it mattered. That’s our first Brier playoff win.”

Indeed, after losing Friday night to Brad Gushue of Newfoundland-Labrador in the 1 vs. 2 Page playoff game and then getting nipped 7-6 by defending champion Kevin Koe in the semifinal, McEwen, third B.J. Neufeld, second Matt Wozniak and lead Denni Neufeld, who finished 9-2 to lead the round-robin, return to Winnipeg on a winning note.

But they’ll carry with some deep-seated regrets about a couple of shot-calling decisions.

McEwen led Koe 3-1 through four ends and 5-3 after the 7th. In the eighth, he could have played a difficult draw for one but tried an even tougher hit for two but surrendered a steal. After surrendering a single in the ninth, Koe made a double-kill for a pair to knot the game 6-6.

In the extra end, McEwen purposely called a peel attempt on a couple of froze corner guards, hoping one of his own red rocks would bounce to the back of the house for later use as a catcher. Instead, it rolled to the back of the button, behind a centre guard.

Eventually, that’s the rock Koe used to draw to — and steal a spot in the final.

“You’d like to think guys of our calibre don’t make mistakes, but we do. And I made a couple of critical ones, so this is a great learning experience,” said McEwen, who had to lose five Manitoba finals before finally capturing a purple heart in 2016. “There’s always something new to learn, how you operate under pressure.

“We made a big mistake on the shot call and we paid for it. We didn’t need to have anything hang around. We threw a down-weight hit that obviously rolled to just a horrendous spot that was obviously going to put some pressure on us. It was a B.S. call that should never have been called by anyone of our calibre, and I don’t know how that mental error happens.”

Team Manitoba earned $51,000 in prize money and another 50 CTRS points as it move closer to landing a coveted spot in the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials, set for December in Ottawa.

Neufeld said the loss to Canada has not altered the plans of the foursome, which discovered a vitality in early January after a frustrating first-half of the season that nearly resulted in a split.

“I don’t really know if (Saturday’s loss) has completely sunk in. It will probably hurt for the next few weeks. But we chatted about how we wanted to come out (in the third-place game) and give it our best. That was important to us, so we can keep building on what we have going on. It’s a really great thing what we have right now, and we didn’t want the loss to get in the way of that,” he said.

“We’re a team that needs to take that extra step to win one of these events, be it a Brier or a Trials, and I think we’ve made that step. If we get into this situation again, we’ll be fairly comfortable with that.

“The belief is there that we can win one of these events.”

A year ago, McEwen and crew finished 8-3, lost the 3 vs. 4 game to Koe and then took their lumps from the boys from Sault Ste. Marie Ont., in the bronze game in Ottawa.

Initially, it wasn’t a rematch either team was remotely interested in staging Sunday.

“We wanted to put on a great show for the fans. You want to make shots. We’re a competitive team and we did the best we could,” said Jacobs, who went home with $41,000 and nearly 36 CRTS points.

“We’re buddies with those guys, off the ice. And in a game like that, you can even be buddies on the ice. I think both teams had conversation, a few laughs, and in a game like that it lets the fans and everyone watching at home see another side of us as competitors.

“There’s more to life than just curling. It’s great to have family here,” added Jacobs, holding his little girl, Camille. “It’s been one heck of a show in St. John’s. It’s just too bad it didn’t end the way we wanted to. But it’s been an awesome experience.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

twitter: WFPJasonBell