Manitoba falls out of contention at Brier

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This article was published 08/03/2019 (2119 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Perhaps Team Manitoba was simply swinging out of its weight class at the Tim Hortons Brier, this year anyway.

Mike McEwen’s team started championship pool play up against the ropes at 4-3, and suffered a one-two punch as Canada’s Brad Gushue struck first with a 6-3 decision, and Alberta’s Kevin Koe delivered the 6-5 knockout blow at Westoba Place on Thursday.

McEwen (4-5) missed a raise-takeout with his last and Koe (9-0) came up big with a come-around draw to the four-foot to win.

“That wasn’t a super easy shot I had to play. To make sure he couldn’t have two, I had to nut it,” McEwen said. “When the clock’s ticking down, I probably didn’t have quite the right shot process from the call to the throw, and sometimes it’s not much to miss out here.

“I’m not frustrated at all, actually. That’s probably the best game we’ve played all week.”

Up 2-1 at the fifth-end break, McEwen forced a single point in the sixth, then manufactured a draw to the four-foot for two and was right on the money to lead 4-2.

Presented with a golden opportunity to force or even steal in the eighth, McEwen came up heavy on a draw to the button. Koe nicked a stone in front of the lid, but lead Ben Hebert brushed it enough to spin in for two and a 4-4 tie.

McEwen threw a circus shot in the ninth, blasting stones in every direction, watching them settle with one Manitoba stone counting to take a 5-4 lead heading home.

Manitoba plays against B.C. (4-5) today at 2 p.m., and finishes championship pool play against Ontario (6-3) at 7 o’clock.

McEwen said the team isn’t mailing it in, noting his team is sitting in the last spot in the Players’ Championship in April.

“There’s a Mr. (Scott) McDonald out there from Ontario that’s trying to catch us,” McEwen said. “We’ll be ready to play tomorrow. We definitely want to win that one, for sure. So despite being out, we’re going to play our butts off tomorrow.”

While Manitoba was on the wrong end of a few unlucky breaks, Alberta lead Ben Hebert said his team has created its own luck.

On the day his former skip, Kevin Martin, was named the greatest male skip of all-time, Hebert guided his current skipper’s beauty of a last shot to a game-stealing three points over Brendan Bottcher’s Team Wild Card to win 7-6 in the afternoon draw.

Shots like that make him feel lucky to have spent eight years with Martin and the last five with another great one.

“I’ve been really spoiled, playing with those two guys,” Hebert said. “Obviously the shot-making those guys bring, if Kevin Martin is one-A, Kevin Koe is a real close one-B.

“Maybe the resumé is not quite as stacked as K-Mart’s, but shot-making wise, I’ve curled with both for a long time and Kevin Koe’s got all the shots, if not more, than Kevin Martin did.”

Hebert is at his 11th Brier, although it took coming down to championship pool play and taking on Bottcher and McEwen to remind him of that after a year away from the event.

“It’s a little bit of a weird format, I’ve never played this format before,” Hebert said. “Now that we’re out here and you see all the big names and teams you’re going to have to play, it’s feeling like a Brier. It’s feeling like playoff curling already.”

Scott McDonald’s first Brier took a full 180-degree turn for the better on Thursday.

After beating Saskatchewan’s Kirk Muyres 7-4 in the afternoon, McDonald handed Brad Jacobs and Northern Ontario (8-1) their first loss of the week. McDonald is the only one to strike first against Jacobs all week, and held onto the lead to beat him 7-6 in an extra end.

While it looked like the three-loss teams were up against it, Ontario is right in the mix now, just one game out of the playoff picture with two to go.

“We’re hitting our groove. We’ve been playing pretty well all week, and we knew Brad’s been playing outstanding,” McDonald said. “We got a couple of breaks early in the game … and that kind of set the tone for the game. We were always able to control the scoreboard.

“A lot of people at the Brier might not know who we are, but that’s kind of cool. It shows people that you don’t necessarily have to be a name to be successful at the Brier.”

Bottcher slipped right into the battle with McDonald, who he conveniently meets in today’s afternoon draw. Wild Card (7-2) trounced B.C.’s Jim Cotter 8-3 in eight ends, rebounding from the tough one against a provincial rival.

“It was probably our best game of the week (against Alberta),” Bottcher’s third Darren Moulding said. “We had a couple of bad shots and that’s all that has to happen to give up three. We just focused on the fact that we played such a good game.”

“We wanted to get into the one-two game, so that pretty much eliminates that possibility, but we’re still in the thick of it here,” Moulding continued, adding he felt his group played great all day.

Canada (8-1) ended Saskatchewan’s playoff hopes, winning 8-4 in the other evening game. Muyres fell to 4-5, but said the week has been a positive experience.

“It’s been good. Obviously it would be nice to get a couple more wins,” he said. “That being said, first time skipping, first time for the Marsh boys there. All in all, not too bad. A little disappointed, but if you’re not disappointed, you shouldn’t be playing.”

Muyres said his group of Kevin Marsh, Daniel Marsh and Dallan Muyres showed they belong on the big stage with the championship pool appearance after upsetting former Manitoba native Matt Dunstone in their provincial final.

“You got to realize what we did here, this is a project over numerous years,” Kirk Muyres said. “We ultimately want to get into those huge games where you’re the only sheet on the ice, but we know this is going to be a progression that takes four, five, six years to get to the top of the world.”

Championship pool play wraps up today, and the playoffs start Saturday.

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