Tiebreakers the ticket at Brier

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This article was published 06/03/2020 (2270 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

KINGSTON, Ont. — A freaky Friday characterized by botched opportunities has created a hectic and pressure-packed Saturday at the Brier for Mike McEwen’s curling crew.

Indeed, it could be a long one at Leon’s Centre — if they’re lucky.

Team Wild Card, skipped by the 39-year-old Winnipegger, is mired in a four-way jam for the final playoff spot at the Canadian men’s curling championship. McEwen, Ontario’s John Epping, Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs and Kevin Koe of Team Canada finished with 7-4 records.

Gentlemen, prepare for tie-breakers. At 8 a.m., McEwen faces Epping, while Jacobs and Koe collide. The survivors then meet at 1 p.m CT, with fourth place on the line.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this before,” said McEwen. “This is about as messy as it can get. As somebody said, it’s hard to get out of this bonspiel. Hopefully, it’s a long day (Saturday).”

Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher (10-1), who scored three with his final rock to dump McEwen 4-2 in the evening draw, was the class of the field all week and nailed down first place, while former Saskatchewan’s Matt Dunstone (8-3) executed a double-takeout to score two and defeat Brad Gushue of Newfoundland-Labrador 6-5, ripping away second place from the two-time Brier champion.

The 1 vs. 2 games is set for today at 1 p.m. CT, while Gushue (8-3) settles for third and awaits his opponent. The 3 vs. 4 contest goes Saturday at 6 p.m.

Things did not have to be this complicated for McEwen, third Reid Carruthers, second Derek Samagalski and lead Connor Hodgson, however, they went 0-2 on the last day of the championship round to slide back.

Wild Card fell 5-3 to Newfoundland-Labrador in the afternoon.

“Those are two heart-breakers. We had chances in that (Alberta) game and didn’t capitalize, unfortunately,” said Carruthers. “But we earned the right to still be in this, so we’ve gotta have short memories and try to learn from why we lost those ones and play really well (Saturday).”

Meanwhile, Manitoba’s Jason Gunnlaugson (5-6) lost four consecutive games in the championship round to tumble into the basement. Gunnlaugson, third Alex Forrest, second Adam Casey and lead Connor Njegovan, playing out of the Morris Curling Club, were edged 9-8 by Saskatchewan and then slipped 7-3 to defending-champion Canada at night.

McEwen wasn’t able to fire up much offence Friday, failing to score a multiple end all day. The team held the hammer in 14 ends, blanking nine while settling for singles on five occasions.

Tied 1-1 playing the eighth end, the skipper ignored a tricky spot on the ice for a draw and elected to try a nose hit on one of his own rocks in the back eight-foot and pick up a deuce that way. But he missed the sweet spot and his shooter rolled away instead.

Surrendering just a single was a cheap cost to regain last rock for Bottcher, who blanked the ninth and then made a solid double-takeout to win. Playing a bump and roll, McEwen’s stone over-curled, caught just a piece of an opposition stone and settled in a spot Bottcher could access.

“We definitely could have won that game. Just a couple of missed opportunities that probably should have been converted,” McEwen said.

Dunstone, the 24-year-old import on a Regina team, continues to weave magic this week. In the afternoon, he made a fully buried Gunnlaugson stone disappear in the 10th end with a tough angle-raise takeout to score a winning deuce.

At night, he had the granite flying with another double to beat Gushue, signalling a series of fist pumps from the animated young skip — who is two wins away from a Brier title, Saskatchewan’s first in 40 years.

“What a wild day. Very proud of my guys, we played some of our best curling (Friday),” Dunstone said. “I’m just very happy we’ve had chances. You need things to go your way for it to be your week, so maybe it’s just mean to be for us right now.”

Sunday’s semifinal is set for 11 a.m., while the final goes at 6 p.m.

Gunnlaugson, Forrest and Njegovan were all Brier rookies after capturing their first-ever Viterra provincial crown, while Casey, an import from Charlottetown, made his seven appearances, representing a record-tying fourth provincial or territorial region.

“We came in hoping to learn as much as we could and we got the maximum out of the round-robin,” said Gunnlaugson. “We obviously wanted to make the final eight here, which really gets us into that group of top Canadian teams. But when you get there you realize, ‘Whoa, these guys are really good.

“There’s some really good teams that didn’t have the greatest record the first time they got to a Brier and it usually takes a while to learn. Hopefully, we can do that.”

Gunnlaugson said he plan is remain a united front and continue to build up crucial CTRS points the rest of this season and during the 2020-21 season for the national Olympic Trials in late November ‘21.

“We’ve really had a good year, we’re trending the right way,” he said. “So, that would be the goal, to put another year together kind of like this one and, hopefully, get to Trials.”

Jacobs was just 1-3 on Tuesday morning and hardly resembled the team that ascended to top spot on the World Curling Federation men’s rankings this season. But with a 6-1 finish, the squad from Sault St. Marie, Ont., looks downright scary.

“We were never out of it at 1-3 and we knew that, and we just built and built and built, and I think we’ve found our groove and we’ve developed some momentum,” said the 2014 Olympic champion, who added three-time Canadian and two-time world champion Marc Kennedy at third to replace former Winnipegger Ryan Fry.

“There was no big shot that turned this week around, or anything like that. Everybody’s in a great mindset right now, we have a great team behind us… everybody is just pitching in where they need to, to make us feel good going into each and every game.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell