Manitoba advances to championship pool

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This article was published 07/03/2019 (2788 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mike McEwen needs to win a lot of games in a row to get where he wants to go.

Team Manitoba is through to the Tim Hortons Brier championship pool, but only just, after beating Prince Edward Island’s John Likely 7-6 at Westoba Place on Wednesday afternoon.

McEwen, Reid Carruthers, Derek Samagalski and Colin Hodgson likely need to win seven games in a row to have a shot at hoisting the Tankard, just like they did at the Viterra Championship in Virden a month ago.

“We’re definitely capable of it,” Carruthers said. “We’re going to be a little bit nervous, obviously, like I’m nervous playing in any game, but it’s so much fun to get to play in front of Brandon and in front of the crowd. They’ve been really supportive of us and we feel like we don’t want to let anyone down, so we’re going to try out best.”

The difference: Those wins don’t need to come against Jeff Stewart, Ty Dilello, Terry McNamee, Tanner Lott, Corey Chambers, Jason Gunnlaugson and William Lyburn.

Now, Manitoba plays two-time defending Canadian men’s curling champion Brad Gushue (6-1), then the world’s top-ranked Kevin Koe and Alberta (7-0) today. Then two more tough teams on Friday. McEwen almost definitely needs all four wins to reach the 3-vs.-4 Page playoff game, and three more to win it all.

“We obviously have to play really well. We’re playing two of the best teams in the world now,” Carruthers said. “First things first, we get a nice little rest. We’ll have a team chat about what we can maybe do a bit better. We weren’t perfect in this past game, but I thought it was a lot better than we’ve been.

“At the end of Friday, if we’re still alive in the competition, even in a tiebreaker, that’d be great.”

Northern Ontario is through at 7-0, Wild Card took the second spot at 6-1, and Saskatchewan slid to fourth at 4-3.

Manitoba is also 4-3 and in third since it beat Saskatchewan: Still alive, but barely.

After letting P.E.I. hang around to a 4-4 tie through seven ends, Manitoba took control in the eighth. McEwen made a quiet tap to bump Likely’s second-shot rock back and count three. P.E.I. missed with its last, and Manitoba took three to lead 7-4, even though McEwen wrecked with last.

Facing five Manitoba stones, Likely delivered a nose hit for a single, cutting Manitoba’s lead to 7-5 coming home. McEwen’s hit to remove one and only surrender a single was good enough to get the job done.

“It feels like you’re deep into provincials and you’re in do-or-die time. It’s crunch time for us,” McEwen said. “We don’t have any other choice, so we’ll just embrace that and go forward.”

Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs completed the most dominant performance in pool play thus far, capping it off with a 9-5 win over Yukon’s Jon Solberg.

Jacobs won the draw to the button in every game, and went up at least 2-0 in the early stages of all seven.

“Hopefully we can keep that going,” Jacobs said. “We’re going to be up against some really tough opponents going forward here. It would be nice to continue to win the hammer, but it’s not a priority.

“If we don’t win hammer in some games moving forward here, it’s still a 10-end game and there’s lots of shots to be made.”

Jacobs hasn’t had to throw his last rock in a 10th end all week. Oddly, he says he’s hoping that changes.

“I hope we have several games where we have to make the last one to win,” Jacobs said. “We welcome those moments of pressure all day long.”

Brendan Bottcher and Team Wild Card (6-1) thrashed Saskatchewan’s Kirk Muyres 8-2 to lock up second place in the pool.

“I feel like we’ve made a bit of a statement,” Bottcher said. “This sets us up good for the next round. I think the teams we’re going to play against know we’re playing well.

“It wouldn’t be a surprise to me at all if we walked out of here at the end of the week as winners.”

Quebec’s Martin Crête (3-4) ended his Brier with a 14-4 beat down of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Andrew Symonds (0-7) to round out Pool A play.

Brad Gushue’s Team Canada isn’t complaining about a less-than-ideal start. Canada capped off Pool B action at 6-1 after cracking a seven in the first end and trouncing Dave St. Louis and Nunavut 11-2, leaving the Brier rookies winless at 0-7.

Gushue’s third Mark Nichols doesn’t mind that the team has gone the distance a number of times, including a game that required a shot for two to beat New Brunswick 8-7 on Tuesday.

“We know getting into the championship round, you’re probably going to have four games that go down to the wire,” Nichols said after clinching a championship pool spot Wednesday morning.

“We’ve been able to pull out a couple of tight ones, so I don’t see how that can be a bad thing. Sure, it’s a little more stressful than we wanted, but that’s the way the Brier goes. You’ve got to be able to make those last rocks, and doing it in the first couple of games is good.”

B.C.’s Jim Cotter (4-3) is also through to the championship round, but is in tough after falling 10-9 to Ontario’s Scott McDonald (4-3).

Nova Scotia’s Stuart Thompson lost 7-5 to Koe, while New Brunswick’s Terry Odishaw (3-4) came close but just shy of a tiebreaker. His 8-2 triumph over Jamie Koe and Northwest Territories (1-6) wasn’t enough after McDonald made a game-winning hit for two against B.C.

Championship pool action is next, with draws today at 2 and 7 p.m.

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