McEwen’s miracle shot not enough

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/11/2014 (4341 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SELKIRK, Man. — It was a heck of a show for curling fans, Brad Gushue agreed, a thrilling Masters Grand Slam of Curling final for the folks watching on TV.

For the Newfoundland skip and his team, though, their 8-6 championship win over Mike McEwen played out a little more through gritted teeth.

McEwen and his Fort Rouge foursome fought hard, you see. Even after Gushue capitalized on some of the Manitobans’ mistakes, even after he scored a huge four-ender in the fifth to seemingly put the game away with a 6-2 lead, McEwen came back. He did it with a shot for the highlight reels, a shot that tied the score at six apiece. It was a pistol, as the curlers always say, the kind of shot that can suck all the momentum back one way.

But Gushue, third Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker didn’t let it knock them off their strategy. They shook it off in the seventh, used their hammer for a deuce, and played the eighth out calmly.

“Made my nerves a little worse, that’s for sure,” Gushue said with a laugh, after capturing his first Grand Slam title since 2009-10. “I thought our team handled it really well… definitely put the momentum back on our side, coming out and playing the seventh the way we did.”

Let’s back up, and set the scene of the men’s Masters final at Selkirk Recreation Complex on Sunday afternoon. McEwen, riding a hot season, had been shooting the lights out for much of the tournament — indeed, he’d thrown a deadly double-takeout to score four and dispatch reigning Olympic champ Brad Jacobs in the semifinal just the night before. Team Gushue, meanwhile, marched to meet the Manitobans in the final with a slew of smart and well-curled games.

The final started quietly, as Gushue blanked the first end. His hammer in the second didn’t quite slide far enough, handing McEwen a steal of one; in the third end, Gushue rebounded to take a deuce. McEwen settled for a single in the fourth, after his own last rock came in a little heavy. Then, in the fifth, all hell broke loose. That was a devastating end for McEwen, as Gushue’s team filled the house with yellow rocks. Neither of McEwen’s shots — a tap on the first, a tap and freeze on the second — did quite what he wanted, and the Manitoban skip paced the sheet next door waiting to find out how much damage had been done.

Gushue sent his hammer in there, an out-turn hit to score four, and the Sportsnet commentary crew began to sound the dirge on McEwen’s Masters hopes.

Then came the sixth end, a stunning comeback, and a shot that is an easy early contender for finest of the year.

‘It’s amazing that it worked out. I didn’t really think I could make it, how it actually happened. I thought it was a pretty good effort to get the rock going in the general direction where it needed to go, and the stars kind of aligned for it to work perfectly’

— Mike McEwen, on his circus shot to score four in the sixth end

McEwen may not have been able to make it, except for the fact Gushue hogged his own second rock, leaving a clogged-up house open for a Hail Mary circus shot. It was officially scored an “out-turn hit runback triple avoid backing difficult.” That doesn’t really convey just how electrifying it was, the way the shooter struck Gushue’s high guard, sent it running back into one of McEwen’s own, sent that rock pinballing off of two Gushue stones.

What was left, when the rocks came to rest, were four of McEwen’s reds standing proudly in the middle of the house. The crowd roared, while McEwen lead Denni Neufeld, second Matt Wozniak and third B.J. Neufeld pumped their brushes in celebration. It’s a shot that wouldn’t often go the right way — and heck, even McEwen didn’t really imagine it would score four and tie the game.

“It’s a bit of a hope,” McEwen said. “The difference, when you’re running such a high rock onto a second guard, an eighth of an inch can sink you. Your eyes can play tricks on you… It’s amazing that it worked out. I didn’t really think I could make it, how it actually happened. I thought it was a pretty good effort to get the rock going in the general direction where it needed to go, and the stars kind of aligned for it to work perfectly.”

But Gushue’s foursome didn’t get rattled. They walked into the seventh with the hammer, and did a fine job holding the Manitobans at bay: McEwen made a slick double takeout with his second, but a Gushue draw and some heavy brushing helped drag a final draw towards the button for a deuce. In the eighth, a fine double peel by Nichols and a final double takeout by Gushue combined to run McEwen out of rocks to clinch the 8-6 win.

“Credit to the guys, we kind of just shook it off and said, ‘you know what, we’re still tied up with hammer, two ends left to win a slam,'” Nichols said. “A lot of teams might take that pretty bad… these events are so hard to win. It’s no easy feat.”

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For Gushue, reunited this season with his longtime colleague and former Stoughton lead Mark Nichols, the victory was a sign of things to come.

“To come here this week, and beat guys like McEwen, Stoughton and Epping in the playoffs, and Howard in the round-robin, it’s nice,” he said. “We got a good team, and obviously we can still improve a bit and grow, but we got the makings of a very good team.”

As for Team McEwen, after a sizzling start — the final was just the third game they’ve lost all season — they plan to take a couple weeks off before getting back in the hunt. And who knows, maybe when they do they can find a little extra swagger from that shot.

“Maybe we can put together a highlight reel from this week, and play that before provincials,” McEwen joked. “Something to draw back on when it’s oh-and-nothing, provincial time.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Melissa Martin
Reporter-at-large

Melissa Martin reports and opines for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Every piece of reporting Melissa produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.