Deuces run wild for McEwen

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This article was published 08/03/2021 (1980 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sometimes, it takes intricate work to get the job done; other times, it’s best to rear back and let the hammer fly.

Mike McEwen and his West St. Paul teammates were on carpentry duty Sunday afternoon, nailing down deuces on four consecutive opportunities to manufacture a 10-7 victory over Steve Laycock of British Columbia.

It was the lone assignment for Team Wild Card 1 on Day 3 of the Brier.

McEwen, third Reid Carruthers, second Derek Samagalski and lead Colin Hodgson, competing together in a third consecutive Canadian men’s curling championship, have strung together a pair of victories after an opening defeat at fan-free WinSport Arena in Calgary.

The 40-year-old foreman from Winnipeg was impressed with the efficiency of his crew against B.C., now 0-2 in a cutthroat, nine-team Pool A.

“I felt in that game we did a very good job of capitalizing on opportunities. The boys had a good mapping of the sheet as far as draw weight and I thought that was a big thing. When we had an opportunity, we were good at executing and converting it,” said McEwen, curling in his sixth Brier.

“That’s just rock placement from our front end. When Derek and Colin are doing their job, it makes my life pretty straightforward and easy. If anything, I was the one slightly off early.”

The scoreboard illustrated only a three-point final cushion for the winning side, however, they took full command after getting through a muddy second end that produced a count of three for B.C. McEwen rebounded with a well-earned pair in the third, a just reward for a terrific hit-and-roll behind cover on the skip’s first toss and perfect tap-back with his last that narrowly squeezed by a guard first.

The squad induced some major pressure in the fourth end to steal a single, pushed Cotter to settle for a single in the fifth and then made use of a couple of corner guards to generate another deuce for a 7-4 advantage after six.

McEwen’s short run-back for another count of two and a 9-5 lead after the eighth sealed the deal.

At no time was the Vernon Club quartet, with Jim Cotter tossing final stones, able to put the squeeze on.

“Sometimes, the games are like that, where you’re scratching and clawing to get your single. But the big thing at our level is the best teams are very good at minimizing, reducing steal opportunities. We’ve done that very well the last couple games, from our opening hiccup,” said McEwen, who fell to New Brunswick’s James Grattan on Saturday morning but hit the win column against Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario later in the day.

“That’s the big difference the last two games. It’s been a bit of a progression. I don’t think I’ve seen Derek (a Carberry resident) in three-and-a-half months until we got here. We’re starting to get dialed in and on the same page with our throws, managing thing better… we’ll need to do that because other teams will be charting the same way.”

McEwen returns to the ice today on the 2:30 p.m. draw against provincial rival Jason Gunnlaugson of Morris.

Gunnlaugson, donning Manitoba colours for the second consecutive Brier, registered back-to-back victories Saturday and is tied with Glenn Howard (Wild Card 3) at 2-0, while four teams chase at 2-1, including Brendan Bottcher, Jacobs, Grattan and McEwen.

Jacobs, who won a national title in 2013 and Olympic gold a year later but has been shut out since, survived a major scare from Brier rookie skip Greg Skauge, 42, from the Northwest Territories.

The gang from Yellowknife led 4-2 at the fifth-end break and 5-4 after the seventh before the World Curling Federation’s No.1-ranked team and the championship’s top seed rallied late.

“We’re expecting to play really well against us. We have a lot of respect for every team that we step onto the ice against,” said Jacobs. “(N.W.T.) played extremely well. It took us a long time to gain a lead. They made a lot of shots, they didn’t make it easy on us and we welcome that challenge. It was great to get out there and have to grind out a win.”

Pool B is equally congested, although Kevin Koe’s Wild Card 2 outfit is 4-0 and has top spot all on its own. The Calgary squad, with Winnipeg’s B.J. Neufeld at third, scored three in the 10th end to post a 9-7 victory over Brad Gushue’s Team Canada, the defending champion, in a Sunday night classic.

Gushue picked up a deuce to grab a 7-6 lead in the ninth but Koe made the most of a pile of rocks in play coming home.

“They’re a great team and we’re a great team and when both are playing good it’s an entertaining affair,” said Neufeld. “This is why we play the sport, to have these types of games, on this type of stage. You’ve got a lot of great players that know how to play under pressure, and the result of that is great games, exciting, and they usually go down to the wire.”

Quebec’s Michael Fournier and Ontario’s John Epping are 3-1, Gushue and Saskatchewan’s Matt Dunstone are 2-1, while Nova Scotia’s Jamie Murphy is 2-2.

Teams can ill afford more than two defeats in preliminary pool play. Once the round-robin is complete Thursday night, only four teams from each of the two pools slide into the championship round Friday and Saturday.

From there, only three teams make the playoffs Sunday.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell