ST. JOHN’S — It came down to his final shot in his final game of the round robin at the Montana’s Brier, but Saskatchewan’s Mike McEwen saw his quest for a Canadian men’s curling championship fall short on Thursday night.
McEwen and his Saskatoon Nutana foursome of third Colton Flasch, second Kevin Marsh, lead Daniel Marsh, alternate Brent Laing and coach Pat Simmons dropped a 6-3 decision to Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone in the last preliminary round draw in St. John’s, finishing with a 5-3 record and in a three-way tie for third place in Pool B.
Manitoba’s Braden Calvert was one of those teams after their 8-4 win over Northern Ontario’s Sandy MacEwan, though, and because they had the best Last Stone Draw rank over the week — 15.36 to McEwen’s 17.22 — they’d claim the final playoff spot.
The contest with Dunstone saw McEwen pick up the first deuce of the game in the second end, and he’d hold a 2-1 lead until the fourth when Manitoba picked up one to tie the game. McEwen scored another in the sixth, but Dunstone took the lead with a pair in eighth, setting up a pivotal 10th end with Saskatchewan trailing one coming home with hammer.
There, Dunstone put together a stellar end, and after a takeout with his final stone left McEwen with a draw to the button to force an extra end, he’d come up light and give up a steal of two for the 6-3 loss.
Other results from the evening draw saw Alberta’s Kevin Koe take a 6-3 win over Yukon’s Thomas Scoffin and New Brunswick’s James Grattan defeat B.C.’s Cody Tanaka 8-2.
The morning draw saw Koe take an 11-4 win over Tanaka, Northwest Territories Jamie Koe defeat Scoffin 10-4, Dunstone get past MacEwan 9-3 and Grattan take an 8-7 extra end win over Calvert.
Final standings in Pool B are as follows:
Alberta (Koe) 8-0
Manitoba (Dunstone) 7-1
Manitoba (Calvert) 5-3 (15.36 LSD)
Saskatchewan (McEwen) 5-3 (17.22 LSD)
New Brunswick (Grattan) 5-3 (38.0 LSD)
Northwest Territories (Koe) 2-6
Northern Ontario (MacEwan) 2-6
Yukon (Scoffin) 1-7
British Columbia (Tanaka) 1-7
Saskatchewan’s Kelly Knapp and his Regina Highland rink of third Brennen Jones, second Dustin Kidby, lead Mat Ring, alternate Trent Knapp and coach Brian McCusker wrapped up their Brier appearance during the afternoon draw, where they dropped a 9-4 decision to Ontario’s Jayden King. They finished 3-5 and tied for fifth place in Pool A.
Knapp got off to a good start against King with a deuce in the first end, but King came right back with four in the second for the early lead. Knapp was unphased, though, scoring one in the third and adding another in the fourth to see things tied up 2-2 through five ends.
Ontario regained the lead with a deuce in the sixth and took control of things with a steal of two in the seventh to lead 8-4, and after they stole another in the eighth, the teams shook hands.
Other afternoon draw scores saw Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue get past Canada’s Brad Jacobs 4-2 to secure first place in the pool, Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard defeat Prince Edward Island’s Tyler Smith 8-3 and Nova Scotia’s Kendal Thompson score six in the first on their way to a 12-2 win over Nunavut’s Derek Samagalski.
Final standings in Pool A are as follows:
Newfoundland (Gushue) 8-0
Canada (Jacobs) 7-1
Ontario (King) 5-3
Quebec (Menard) 5-3
Saskatchewan (Knapp) 3-5
Prince Edward Island (Smith) 3-5
Newfoundland (Young) 3-5
Nova Scotia (Thompson) 2-6
Nunavut (Samagalski) 0-8
The championship round begins at 11 a.m. Friday with the Page 1-2 playoffs as Gushue takes on Dunstone and Jacobs faces Koe. The winners will advance to the Page Playoff 1-2 game at 5 p.m. on Saturday, with the losers playing King and Calvert in the Page 3-4 playoff at 5 p.m. on Thursday.
The Page 3-4 game takes place at 11 a.m. on Saturday, followed by the semifinal at 11 a.m. and championship final at 5 p.m. on Sunday.
You can keep up with all the up-to-date scores at www.curling.ca.
