McEwen out of hospital, throwing rocks at championship game

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This article was published 04/02/2018 (3002 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINKLER — Mike McEwen left the hospital this morning after a three-night stay and will play in the Manitoba men’s curling championship final today.

The Fort Rouge skip is holding the broom and throwing third rocks against Reid Carruthers of West St. Paul, while B.J. Neufeld will toss the final stones.

McEwen has been battling chickenpox since the start of the 32-team event Wednesday and skipped the team in its first win late that afternoon. Neufeld skipped six games.

The 37-year-old skip came out for the team practice today and received a huge ovation from the 600-plus fans at Centennial Arena when he was introduced before the start of the 3 p.m. final.

McEwen is making a record-setting fifth straight appearance in the Manitoba final.

It’s the third time in four years Carruthers and McEwen collide with a trip to the Brier on the line. Carruthers won the 2015 title in Brandon, while McEwen prevailed a year ago in Portage la Prairie.

The Canadian championship will be held in Regina, March 3-11.

Neufeld, Matt Wozniak and Denni Neufeld had a few hours to rest earlier this afternoon after the trio knocked off J.T. Ryan of Assiniboine Memorial 6-2 in the morning semi-final, ending the junior squad’s storybook run.

Ryan, who has won back-to-back Manitoba junior crowns, was under fire from the opening end to handshakes after eight ends. Afterward, there was some disappointment but the Ryan crew — with third Jacques Gauthier, second Colin Kurz and lead Brendan Bilawka — was anything but crushed.

“I’m still happy. Right now it still sucks. I would have liked to have won, or at least had a more competitive game,” said Ryan. “But it won’t take long for me to get over it. We’ll all be pretty happy in a little bit.”

Neufeld orchestrated a deuce in the first end and was gifted a pair in the second when the 20-year-old Assiniboine Memorial skip came up light on a draw.

“We learned it’s pretty tough to win a game when you give up four in the first two ends. So, hopefully (we) try not to do that again,” offered Ryan, grinning. “We didn’t get too down on ourselves, even when we were down four. We had a couple chances where if we would have made one or two more we could have got a deuce, which would have changed the momentum. We just couldn’t make the key ones.

“Those guys aren’t going to miss. We were set up really good in the (fourth) end …then B.J. makes a pistol freeze. If he’s a little bit off, I may have a double for three or something, and it could be a different game.”

By the fifth-end break, Neufeld led 5-1. After blanking the sixth, Ryan attempted a double-takeout for another blank but left a yellow Neufeld counter to surrender a steal in the seventh.

Staring down a wide-open house, Ryan slid his final rock in for a single point and then offered congratulations to the winners.

Ryan finished with a 7-3 record in Winkler. Kurz said the experience of going head-to-head with some of the province’s premier men’s teams was unforgettable.

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“We said at the start of the week if we could ever make the fours, it’s basically like winning the whole thing for us. So, we’re really happy to be in this game. To be with McEwen and Carruthers and us, those three teams left, that says something for us. We’re proud of ourselves,” he said.

“For us, we know that we’re not at the level that they are. But getting to play them lets us see where we need to get to.”

The team will split for a year, as Ryan and Gauthier hook up with Jordan Peters and Cole Chandler for another run at a junior title. Kurz and Bilawka are still considering their options for the 2018-19 season.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell