McEwen, Gushue to meet in Elite 10 final

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This article was published 17/03/2018 (3048 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mike McEwen proved Saturday the skip’s the skip for a reason.

The Winnipeg curler pulled off a circus shot to score a huge deuce and win the seventh end, propelling his Fort Rouge foursome to a semi-final victory on home ice over Glenn Howard of Islington, Ont., at the Elite 10 bonspiel.

With that, McEwen and his teammates — for the time being — third B.J. Neufeld, second Matt Wozniak and lead Denni Neufeld secured a spot in the final of the Grand Slam of Curling tour event at St. James Civic Centre.

The squad recently announced plans to break up at the end of the curling season after 11 years together — capturing back-to-back Manitoba titles (2016 and ’17) and competing at three straight Briers.

McEwen meets reigning two-time Brier national men’s champion Brad Gushue of St. John’s N.L., in the championship game, set for 9:30 a.m. at the Ness Avenue rink.

The Elite 10, which offers $20,000 to the winning team, uses a match-play, skins format, which means a team that either scores multiple points with the hammer or steals at least one point without the hammer wins the end. A five-rock free guard zone is being used this weekend.

With the match all square after six ends, McEwen faced a low-percentage but risk-free shot with his final rock in the seventh end of the late-afternoon contest. The 37-year-old veteran skip fired a bullet toward a stone located above the 12-foot and near the boards, clipped just the right amount of granite and then watched as his shooter caromed to the button, removing a Howard counter and sticking for a pair.

A big, vocal crowd went bananas when the shot was made.

“Given the circumstances and given I had about five seconds left on my (time) clock, it was a big one. Making that shot won us the game,” said McEwen, when asked if the clutch delivery was one of his finest ever. “I’ve probably made some equally big or bigger shots, but it’s up there, maybe top-5.”

The local favourites were one-up coming home, but Howard couldn’t even the match in the eighth.

“The odds were definitely in our favour after that shot,” McEwen said.

The team made an announcement Tuesday that members were going their separate ways, just days after narrowly missing the playoffs at the Brier in Regina.

There was no mention of whether any of the players had committed to play with a new team for the next four-year Olympic cycle or is stepping away from the game. The team is sticking it out for a couple of season-ending events.

McEwen said winning the Elite 10 would be a special way to cap off a tremendous run.

“We look and feel loose. We’re really enjoying the format. It’s been fun. I feel like the team is very free right now and we’re performing,” he said. “I’m not sure what it is. Maybe with that announcement, it addressed that elephant in the room and it’s almost unshackled us. We’re just playing so loose and so well.

“It’s just coming together. I’m so happy we can do this in front of our fans at home. It was loud in there… I’m pumped. I hope we can put on a show and get the crowd into it, and see what happens.”

Gushue, meanwhile, also posted a one-up win over Koe, whose squad wore Canadian colours at the recent Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang but returned home without a medal.

Earlier Saturday afternoon, Howard knocked off Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie. Ont., two-up in quarter-final play, while Gushue beat John Epping of Toronto by the identical score.

Epping demolished Niklas Edin of Karlstad, Sweden four-up in a morning tie-breaker.

Two local squads, Granite Club’s Jason Gunnlaugson and West St. Paul’s Reid Carruthers, along with Edin and Olympic gold medallist John Shuster of Minnesota did not make the playoffs.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: WFPJasonBell