Grassie’s gallant effort not enough

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This article was published 09/02/2020 (2267 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sean Grassie skips a terrific Manitoba’s men’s curling team, yet is incapable of crashing the well-established hierarchy here. 

The point was made again Sunday morning in the Viterra semifinal.

Grassie, flanked by third Tyler Drews, second Daryl Evans and lead Rodney Legault, put in a gallant effort, executing an abundance of shots in the high-pressure televised matchup. But Mike McEwen and his sharp-shooters from West St. Paul registered an efficient 7-3 victory to reach the championship finale. 

The Grassie foursome is near the top of the Manitoba Curling Tour but doesn’t venture beyond the provincial borders, and, thus, rarely faces curling’s aristocracy, of which McEwen — fifth on the World Curling Tour ranking — is a member in good standing. With that lofty stature comes a meticulousness and composure teams such as Grassie, a rung below, have difficulty matching, even on their very best day.

“It’s noticeable when you play a team like this. Maybe you can afford to get away with a slight miscue here and there if you play locally. You still have to play well. But against these guys, one mistake and you’re giving up two or three or a steal” said Grassie.

“We play a lot. We probably play as much as those guys, every weekend, but that’s on (the Manitoba tour). They’re out playing on this ice every week and we just play on the arena ice once a year. For a team that sticks to home and plays locally, being in the final three is a pretty good achievement.”

The Winnipegger, whose second book on Manitoba sports is currently on his editor’s desk, guided his team to an impressive 6-3 record this week but couldn’t author a stunning upset at Eric Coy Arena.

The trio of defeats? All to McEwen.

Grassie’s first-year team was relatively steady throughout the semifinal — even trading deuces in the fourth and fifth ends — but half-shots in the third and seventh resulted in steals of one. Down 5-2 and forcing the issue in the eighth, Grassie got in a heap of trouble, and his heavy draw against two didn’t remedy the situation. McEwen stole a pair to effectively seal the deal, although handshakes weren’t exchanged until after the ninth.

“That’s the only team that we lost to all week was Mike. We played them three straight days on the morning draw, and they’re such a good team. I thought we actually played a pretty good game, but they’re so tough,” said Grassie, who lost the 2013 provincial final to Jeff Stoughton in Neepawa.

“On the whole, it was a very good week for us. For a team that sticks to home and plays locally, being in the final three is a pretty good achievement.”

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Grassie and Drews joined forces even before they left Virden following identical early exits from the 2019 Viterra. Evans came with Drews as a package deal, while Legault was recruited in the summer.

Their run this week was reminiscent of the sensational showings of William Lyburn of Granite (2016), Trevor Loreth of Granite (2017), Steve Irwin of Brandon (2018) and Lyburn again (2019), playoff teams that all fell short.

“It’s hard, yeah. You’ll see a team making a really good run. There’s been a lot of teams that just play locally that have made the final three, final four. Usually a team sneaks in (to the playoffs) like that,” said Grassie. “But to take the next step and beat Mike is definitely another hurdle to overcome.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell