Gushue scores win over Wild Card

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/03/2018 (3093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

REGINA — Mike McEwen was bang on Monday morning with his take on a looming bout with defending Brier champion Brad Gushue on the evening card.

“(It’s) a big-boy battle,” he had quipped. “This is an important game.”

In the matchup of internationally recognized Canadian curling heavyweights — both coming in with impeccable records — give Gushue the first round, not by way of a knockout but a decision on points.

Gushue’s Team Canada scored deuces in the first and third ends and was able to keep McEwen’s Team Wild Card from cashing in a big end down the stretch in a 6-5 triumph.

Gushue is alone atop Pool A at 4-0, while McEwen fell to 3-1.

“It’s a big win for us. You know Mike’s going to be around at the end. Any time you can get, really, two games up because we would have to lose two for him to get ahead of us now, it’s big,” said Gushue.

Under a new format, the 16-team field is fractured into a pair of eight-team pools. By the end of play Wednesday, only eight teams will have a chance to qualify for the Page playoffs.

The clash between Gushue’s St. John’s, N.L., foursome, ranked second on the World Curling Tour’s order of merit, and McEwen’s Winnipeg squad from the Fort Rouge Club, ranked fifth on the WCT, lived up to McEwen’s expectations of a hard-fought battle.

And the 2017 champs were no chumps, he said.

“They were a good version of themselves and we weren’t quite as good as we could be, and that’s not going to be good enough to beat Brad,” said McEwen, who is supported by B.J. Neufeld at third, second Matt Wozniak and lead Denni Neufeld.

“There was the odd throw and maybe a couple of calls that we could have maybe forced the issue a little bit more. It’s tough. You’re playing a good team, they start with hammer and there’s not much room for error.”

The winning team curled a collective 88 per cent, four points higher than the McEwen team.

Individually, Gushue was a stellar 89 per cent, compared to 78 per cent for the Wild Card skipper.

“They’re definitely in a good place, they’re throwing it well. Most times you run into Brad, that’s the case. You can tell right away in a game you’re going to have to have an A-game, and we were a B-something,” said McEwen.

The Wild Card gang has just one game today, an afternoon meeting with Jamie Koe of Northwest Territories (2-2).

Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher had a two-win day and has an identical 3-1 record.

Yukon (1-3), skipped by Thomas Scoffin, 23, who is making his Brier debut, finally hit the win column with an 8-2 rout of Sean Geall of British Columbia (0-4). Scoffin’s father, Wade, 51, plays second on the team.

Thomas Scoffin holds the distinction of being the youngest skip in Canadian junior championship history when he played in 2007 in St. Catharines, Ont., at age 12.

Another Brier first-timer, Greg Smith of Newfoundland-Labrador, is 1-3.

On the morning draw, McEwen took just about every second he had — and made one of his best shots of the curling season — to beat a pesky Jamie Murphy of Nova Scotia (2-2).

The 37-year-old skip executed a thin double-takeout to sit three with his first rock and then had a wide-open hit with his last stone — with just seven seconds left on his time clock — to score three and prevail 6-5.

Murphy had stolen points in the eighth and ninth ends to build a 5-2 lead coming home.

In the 10th, McEwen’s version of a “Hot Shots-like” bullet drive — catching a slice of a rock in the top eight-foot and rolling to thump out shot stone nestled near the button — really turned the tide.

“It was the hardest shot but also the best result. I just didn’t see anything else that was much easier that was going to give us a good chance,” he said.

Murphy then tried a raise double-takeout to wiggle out of trouble, but two red Wild Card stones remained along with his yellow shooter, leaving the Fort Rouge skip an open hit for the win.

When McEwen finally released the stone, he had mere seconds to spare. Teams get 38 minutes of strategy time with the clock running plus two timeouts.

“We maximize our clock all the time. It’s not something new to us,” McEwen said. “I don’t like to be that tight. It’s me calling the game, so I’ll take the responsibility on that.”

On the afternoon draw, Manitoba’s Reid Carruthers flashed a different look but produced the same results.

Leaving his trademark ball cap in the locker room and exposing a buzz cut of what’s left of his locks, the 33-year-old skip guided his team to a fourth-straight triumph.

Quebec’s Mike Fournier (1-3) couldn’t withstand the offensive punch of Carruthers, third and Regina product Braeden Moskowy, second Derek Samagalski and lead Colin Hodgson, falling 9-5 to the West St. Paul quartet. Carruthers led 4-2 after four ends and 7-3 after six.

Team ’Toba is tied with Brad Jacobs (4-0) atop the Pool B standings.

Carruthers made the fashion decision to go sans hat on a whim — but was pumped about the positive results.

“Change it up a little bit. I’m not going to wear a hat every day for the rest of my life on the ice,” Carruthers said, during a playful post-game media scrum. “It was probably one of my better games and the guys said I’m a little more aerodynamic this game. They were a little surprised.

“Little cool on the head. I might have to wear one of those real thin tuques.”

Carruthers was finally asked to address his team’s terrific run through three days at Brandt Centre.

“It’s mission accomplished after the first couple of days. For us to be 4-0 is a great feeling and we have some tough tests ahead of us, but overall we’re looking like we have a decent chance to at least make the next round,” he said.

Manitoba takes on John Epping of Ontario (3-1) this morning and New Brunswick’s James Grattan (1-3) on the evening draw.

Whether or not he sticks with a naked noggin remains “a game-time decision,” Carruthers said.

Saskatchewan’s Steve Laycock thrilled the afternoon crowd with a second straight win to move to 2-2. Laycock called the line as Winnipegger and team fourth Matt Dunstone negotiated a tight guard, hit and stuck for a 7-6 extra-end decision over Eddie MacKenzie of Prince Edward Island. (1-3). Dave St. Louis of Nunavut is 0-4.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @WFPJasonBell