Manitoba experience perfect everywhere but on scoreboard

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This article was published 08/03/2019 (2021 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been a bit of a strange week for Team Manitoba at the Tim Hortons Brier.

For skip Mike McEwen, it was a chance to play in the Canadian men’s curling championship in the city where he was raised. Derek Samagalski, the team’s second, now calls Brandon home and was looking forward to playing in front of family and friends.

The foursome, which also includes third Reid Carruthers and lead Colin Hodgson, had never been the home team at the Brier in their past appearances, but it’s an experience that will stick with them for a while, even though they failed to advance to the playoff round.

“It’s been awesome,” Samagalski said. “Our team has been fortunate enough to play in a bunch of Briers already. None of us have played in a hometown Brier before. For Mike being a Brandon kid and me now living in Brandon and all of our family and friends and sponsors here, it’s been unreal. They’ve been great and we tried to put on the best show we could for them.”

Manitoba finished the event with a 6-5 record after topping British Columbia’s Jim Cotter 9-7 on Friday afternoon and an 8-4 victory over Ontario’s Scott McDonald in the evening at Westoba Place.

But it was a pair of losses before the final day of championship pool play that the team regrets. In the preliminary round, McEwen’s team blew a 5-0 lead after four ends and lost 9-8 to Wild Card’s Brendan Bottcher in an extra end. They followed that up with a 7-6 loss to Yukon in the team’s next game, giving up a steal of one in the 10th end.

If Manitoba had won those two games, the foursome would have been in a good position to make the final four.

McEwen, who joined the other three players this season, admitted the foursome hasn’t clicked as quickly as he hoped. He said the team struggled to string eight shots together in an end this week, but pointed out Samagalski and Hodgson were solid all week.

He thinks the team just needs more time to come together.

“You look at how much time I had with my other team, we had a decade together and I think it took a (four-year) cycle for us to get there,” McEwen said. “I was a lot younger then and had a lot more to learn, but we got there. We were top three in the world for many years and we just need a bit more time.

“Some teams seem like they can jump up there quickly with a player or two replacement. With Reid and I, we’d love it to be that way but unfortunately it will take more time than we initially expected.”

The mixed results have McEwen torn on how to view this year’s Brier.

“It’s been great. It’s tough to quantify it because we’ve had a tough week playing. This is my first Brier where, unfortunately, we’re playing a couple of meaningless games today. I’ve never experienced that,” he said. “Yes, the home experience was amazing, but on the other side, the competitive side hasn’t been as good for me. It’s a different experience.

“It’s definitely not as good as we’ve had before because we’ve been so close to winning. Boy would that have been amazing to be at home and have that. It would have been the ultimate, but unfortunately we didn’t play well enough to have that complete experience.”

As much as McEwen would have liked to reach the playoffs, he feels the four best teams — Alberta’s Kevin Koe, Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs, Canada’s Brad Gushue and Wild Card’s Brendan Bottcher — will be playing this weekend.

Without any games left to play before Sunday evening’s final, Samagalski said people may see him around the Patch and that he’s appreciative of the experience this week at Westoba Place.

“Our goal was to make the Brier, which we did and unfortunately we had a couple of games that we’re on the wrong side of the coin flip,” he said. “Overall it’s been a great and fun Brier for us. Yes we’re a little disappointed in our result, but we’re definitely proud to be here and give it all we’ve got for our next game too.

“The crowds have been awesome. We appreciate all the support. That extra bit of adrenalin that kicks in when the fans are cheering for you is definitely a neat thing.”

» cjaster@brandonsun.com

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