It was a long, emotional Monday for Saskatchewan at the 2026 Montana’s Brier, a day that saw Regina’s Kelly Knapp fall twice in heartbreaking fashion while Mike McEwen kept his run in Pool B rolling.
Knapp stepped onto the ice in the morning sitting at 1-1 and staring down Quebec’s Jean-Michel Ménard, who came in with the same record. The Regina foursome came out sharp, posting a deuce in the second end to take early control.
But Ménard answered right back, stuffing three onto the board in the third to swing momentum in Quebec’s favour.
The teams traded singles through the fourth and fifth, but the turning point came in the sixth. Knapp had a tough, angled raise for three, but instead wrecked on his own stone—opening the door for a Quebec steal and a 5-3 lead.
To their credit, Saskatchewan punched back with a pair in the seventh, then held Quebec to one in the eighth. That set up a critical ninth end where Knapp executed a delicate final-stone takeout to score two and grab a 7-6 lead.
But the one-point edge didn’t hold. Ménard played a sharp tenth end and scored the deuce he needed, handing Saskatchewan an 8-7 loss that stung.
If Knapp’s game was high-stress, Mike McEwen’s afternoon matchup with Northern Ontario’s Sandy MacEwan was the opposite—a methodical, disciplined effort that rarely looked in doubt.
McEwen struck for two with the hammer in the first end, then forced Northern Ontario to a single in the second. What followed was a rare string of four consecutive blanks as both teams waited for cracks that never came.
Saskatchewan finally took one in the seventh, and when McEwen stole in both the eighth and ninth ends, the Nutana skip had built a 5-1 cushion.
Northern Ontario ran out of rocks in the tenth, sealing a tidy 5-1 win. McEwen now sits at 3-1, holding down third place in Pool B with a matchup against New Brunswick’s James Grattan (2-2) coming Tuesday morning.
Monday night brought a chance for Knapp to reset against P.E.I.’s Tyler Smith, but the theme of frustration resurfaced.
Smith opened with a single in the first and then turned up the pressure in the second, stealing one to go ahead 2-0. Knapp’s crew responded in the third, capitalizing on P.E.I. errors to post a three-spot and grab the lead.
From there, the middle ends turned into a grind. The teams exchanged singles through the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh, giving Knapp a slim 5-4 lead heading to the eighth.
Smith, with hammer, made his move—scoring two to jump back in front 6-5. In the ninth, a P.E.I. mistake left Knapp a chance for three, but his takeout attempt clipped a centre-line guard. Instead of a big end, Saskatchewan settled for one and a 6-6 tie.
That set the stage for the tenth. Smith drew beautifully with his first stone, and Knapp attempted a difficult double to salvage the end. But the tricky ice bit him again, leading to an 8-6 final in favour of P.E.I.
Knapp ends the day at 1-3, and the path to the playoffs is narrowing. Saskatchewan’s Knapp returns to the ice Tuesday at noon to face Nunavut’s Derek Samagalski (0-5) in what now feels like a must-win matchup.
