News National

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. — Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen bounced back to even his record at 1-1 in the BOOST National.

McEwen, who sustained a late extra-end loss to Brad Gushue during Tuesday’s evening draw, rebounded Wednesday afternoon with a convincing 5-1 victory over John Morris and his team from Vernon, B.C.

Team McEwen, winners of six Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling titles, got off to the right start with third B.J. Neufeld securing the hammer in the pre-game draw to the button and they continued to control things from there. McEwen scored a deuce in the second, forced Morris to a point in the third and added another pair in four to lead 4-1 at the break.

“It started off great with B.J. going pin-pin in the draw,” Team McEwen second Matt Wozniak said. “That’s always a pretty big confidence boost and we just kept it rolling. We actually felt like we took a lot out of last night’s game, just coming back and making it close, so we tried to just build on that in this game out here against John and had a good performance. We’re back on track.”

The 2010 Olympic gold medallist Morris (0-1) couldn’t get things going giving up a steal in five when his runback into the pile misfired and called it quits during the sixth end when things weren’t looking pretty.

“Mike and B.J. were playing well so it’s very difficult if we get a reasonably good setup at the start of the end and the back end finishes off what they’re supposed to do then we’re going to be successful,” Wozniak said. “That’s what happened out there. I don’t know if those guys were a little bit tired from the pre-trials but they didn’t seem super interested either so that didn’t hurt us either.”

Team Morris came straight to the BOOST National from Summerside, P.E.I., where they won the Road to the Roar A qualifier Sunday to secure a spot in next month’s Canadian Olympic curling trials.

“We were wondering what we were going to get out of them,” Wozniak said. “A little bit flat and disinterested but that’s the way things go.”

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Elsewhere, Winnipeg’s Jason Gunnlaugson moved up to a 2-0 record in round-robin play. Gunnlaugson fended off a late charge from city rival William Lyburn to win 8-7 in an extra end during a repeat of the Tour Challenge Tier 2 final.

Tied 2-2, Gunnlaugson counted three in the third, limited Lyburn to one in the fourth and took two in the sixth to hold a four-point advantage. Lyburn (0-1) erased the deficit with a three-ender in seven and stole the equalizer in eight to force overtime. Gunnlaugson made no mistake in the extra though drawing for the winner.

Jason Gunnlaugson makes the draw in the extra end to win 8-7 over William Lyburn #GSOC #BoostNational #curling pic.twitter.com/Jg1cfqf38O

— Jonathan Brazeau (@JonathanBrazeau) November 15, 2017

Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers (1-1) also earned a cumbersome 6-5 extra-end victory over China’s Rui Liu (0-2). Carruthers jumped ahead with a three-ender in the fifth and stole one in six to lead 5-3. Liu settled for a single in seven and stole one in eight, but Carruthers closed it out with a point in the extra end.

Meanwhile, Tracy Fleury of Sudbury, Ont., climbed to a 2-0 record following an 8-5 victory over defending women’s champion Kerri Einarson (0-1) of East St. Paul, Man.

Casey Scheidegger (1-0) of Lethbridge, Alta., slid away in a 7-2 win over Alina Paetz of Switzerland. Scheidegger stole three in the first and one in the second to grab an early 4-0 lead. Paetz (0-2) could only count a single in three and Scheidegger padded the scoreboard with a deuce in four. The 2015 world champion Paetz was forced to just another point in five and Scheidegger added another in six for early handshakes.

The BOOST National is the third event and second major of the 2017-18 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season and features 15 of the top men’s teams and 15 of the top women’s teams from around the globe.

Round-robin play runs through to Friday with the top eight on each side qualifying for the weekend playoffs.

TV coverage begins Thursday at Noon ET on Sportsnet and online at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and gsoc.yaretv.com (international).