Lott advances to Viterra final with triumph over McEwen

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This article was published 13/02/2022 (1567 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Colton Lott hasn’t been a skip for long, but you’d never be able to tell by the way he’s been playing all week at the Viterra Championship in Selkirk.

Lott kept his perfect record intact Saturday night with a massive 8-7 win over Mike McEwen in the 1 vs. 2 playoff game to punch his ticket to Sunday’s final.

The 26-year-old out of Winnipeg Beach Curling Club, as well as teammates Kyle Doering and Tanner Lott, played behind Pat Simmons for the first half of the season. Simmons stepped away from competitive curling to focus on his gig with Curl Saskatchewan as their director of high performance, leading to Lott making the jump from third to skip and Emerson Klimpke getting the call to play lead.

“This is our third event this season that I’ve been skipping with our current quarter,” said Lott, who got a last-minute call to play third for Saskatchewan’s Matt Dunstone at the Olympic trials in November. Lott played extremely well and he’s been building off that performance since.

“Every time we get out there, I get more and more comfortable with the position.”

No kidding. When you knock off local curling giant McEwen, it’s safe to say you’re more than comfortable.

“We’re feeling good. It’s nice to put ourselves in position to win the province. It’s just exciting,” said Lott, who scored a pair in the 10th end to down McEwen.

“It means a lot, but it’s not over yet. All our focus is going towards the next one to just keep doing what we’re doing. I can’t say that enough.”

McEwen is forced to take the long road to the final and will have to get past rising star Ryan Wiebe this morning. The winner will play Lott at 2:30 p.m. at the Selkirk Curling Club for the buffalo jacket and a berth in next month’s Brier. Wiebe eliminated defending champion Jason Gunnlaugson from the competition in the morning draw, then took down Braden Calvert in the afternoon, before finishing his incredible day with a 7-4 win over Corey Chambers in the 3 vs. 4 matchup.

Despite being a 21-year-old, the lights don’t appear too bright for Wiebe, who says his upcoming meeting with McEwen will be the biggest game of his young career.

“It definitely builds confidence when you’re able to perform against these top teams and battle it out and come out with some wins,” said the Fort Rouge skip.

“The two games we had today against Gunner and Calvert and even Chambers, they’re all really good teams. To play well, play consistent, and battle for 10 straight ends, it really reinforces the confidence that we have (for) tomorrow.”

Fort Garry’s Chambers believes Wiebe is the real deal. Chambers crushed veteran William Lyburn 7-2 Saturday afternoon before falling to Wiebe.

“They’re just super impressive. Their weight control for such a young age… like I know when I was their age I didn’t have that sort of touch game yet,” said Chambers.

“They’re a real threat in this. They have every opportunity. They’re playing well enough to win, for sure.”

It was an extremely disappointing week for Gunnlaugson — Manitoba’s Brier representative the past two years. Before his 7-4 loss to Wiebe sent him packing, the No. 2 seed lost 8-3 to Lott on Friday night. Wiebe also got the best of Gunnlaugson in the qualifying round.

“It’s definitely frustrating. We’ll debrief a little bit here and try to put some of the puzzle pieces together but at the moment, I don’t think we’re exactly sure (what happened),” Gunnlaugson said.

“We just never really got rolling on most cylinders, never mind all cylinders.”

Gunnlaugson can still return to next month’s Brier for a third straight year, only this time, it’ll have to be as a wild-card team. As the fifth-ranked unit on the Canadian Team Ranking System, his odds are good, but it’ll ultimately come down to how the other provincial tournaments around the country shake out.

“That’s definitely why we work so hard all year to try and get that wildcard spot. It does give you that second life. I think we’re gonna take a little bit to park this one,” Gunnlaugson said.

“We definitely had a pretty bad showing. Probably the worst we played all year was this week. It may take us a little while to park it but we’ll be ready and roaring to go for the Brier.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31