ST. JOHN’S — Both of Saskatchewan’s representatives at the Montana’s Brier found the win column on Sunday.
Regina’s Kelly Knapp was victorious in his lone game at the Canadian men’s curling championship, defeating Nova Scotia’s Kendal Thompson 8-5, while Saskatoon’s Mike McEwen dropped his first game Sunday 6-4 to Alberta’s Kevin Koe before rebounding with a 10-5 victory over Yukon’s Thomas Scoffin.
Knapp and his Highland foursome of third Brennen Jones, second Dustin Kidby, lead Mat Ring, alternate Trent Knapp and coach Brian McCusker got off to a good lead against Nova Scotia, scoring three in the second and two in the fourth for a 5-2 lead. Thompson scored a pair in the second to get back into it, but Knapp got another deuce in the seventh and stole in the eighth for an 8-4 lead. Thompson would get one in the ninth but no closer and Knapp was in the win column.
McEwen and his Nutana team of third Colton Flasch, second Kevin Marsh, lead Daniel Marsh, alternate Brent Laing and coach Pat Simmons found themselves in a battle with Koe, scoring the only deuce prior to the final end to lead 4-3 heading into the final two frames. Koe made an utterly ridiculous triple take-out with his final stone to blank the ninth and then used the hammer to put up three in the 10th for the 6-4 win.
Against Scoffin, McEwen stole two in the first and added a deuce in the fifth to lead 5-2 through five ends. A steal in the sixth made it a four-point game, but Scoffin came almost all the way back with three the next end. McEwen saw to it there would be no comeback, though, putting up four in the eighth, and the teams shook hands.
Knapp is now 1-1 in Pool A, with the standings as follows:
Canada (Jacobs) 3-0
Newfoundland (Gushue) 3-0
Ontario (King) 2-1
Newfoundland (Young) 2-1
Saskatchewan (Knapp) 1-1
Quebec (Menard) 1-1
Nova Scotia (Thompson) 0-2
Prince Edward Island (Smith) 0-3
Nunavut (Samagalski) 0-3
McEwen is alone in third in Pool B at 2-1, with standings as follows:
Alberta (Koe) 3-0
Manitoba (Dunstone) 2-0
Saskatchewan (McEwen) 2-1
Manitoba (Calvert) 1-1
New Brunswick (Grattan) 1-2
Northwest Territories (Koe) 1-2
Northern Ontario (MacEwan) 1-2
Yukon (Scoffin) 1-2
British Columbia (Tanaka) 0-2
Knapp plays twice on Monday, with his 7 a.m. draw contest against Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard and 5 p.m. draw against P.E.I.’s Derek Samagalski.
McEwen has a single game against Northern Ontario’s Sandy MacEwan at 1 p.m.
You can follow along with all the scores and info from the Montana’s Brier at www.curling.ca.
