News Elite 10

WINNIPEG — Mike McEwen has captured a lucky seventh Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title.

McEwen scored a 3 & 1 victory over Brad Gushue to take the Princess Auto Elite 10 title Sunday in his hometown.

Here’s how it all went down.

1ST END: McEwen opted to choose the yellow rocks conceding the hammer to Gushue. It was a bold move and played out perfectly as McEwen sat three stones and forced Gushue to bail things out with his last. Gushue took out two but left behind one pesky counter to give up a steal. MCEWEN 1UP

2ND END: No hammer? No problem for McEwen. Gushue needed to cover the pin with McEwen holding a piece of the button. It looked good but rolled just an inch too far for another steal. MCEWEN 2UP

3RD END: Impressive. The pressure was on again in the third with McEwen sitting another cluster trio. Gushue went for a wicked shot from nearly off the wall like a pair of Vans to get into the pile and nudge McEwen’s shot rock to avoid a steal and push it. MCEWEN 2UP

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4TH END: Boomshakalaka, McEwen is on fire NBA Jam style scoring his third point of the match. McEwen made a marvellous shot nudging his own back to kick out Gushue’s counter to score and tighten his grip on the game. MCEWEN 3UP

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5TH END: It’s not over yet. A rare McEwen miss on the day opened the door for Gushue to deliver an open hit and get on the scoreboard for the first time in the game. MCEWEN 2UP

6TH END: And so the plot thickens. McEwen draws to the back of the four-foot circle for a push to lose the hammer, but Gushue will need to win out to stay alive. MCEWEN 2UP

7TH END: That’s the ballgame as Gushue had a shot through the port to score but clicked off a guard and missed the mark. MCEWEN 3UP

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RULES OF MATCH PLAY

In case you’re just joining us, the Princess Auto Elite 10 features unique match play rules where teams compete to win the most ends per game by either counting two or more rocks (with the hammer) or stealing at least one (without the hammer). Each end is worth one point as there are no carryovers.

A single or empty house is a blank, called a push in match play, no points are awarded and results in loss of hammer for the following end. Unlike in skins play, a push does not result in a carryover of points. There is no extra end, instead, a draw-to-the-button shootout will determine the winner if the game is tied (aka “all square”) after eight.

The Princess Auto Elite 10 has a new rule this year: Thinking time has been changed from 33 minutes to four minutes per end. If a team runs out of time, they cannot throw any more rocks in the end. Teams also have three timeouts.