McEwen, Jacobs clinch byes to Players’ Championship semifinals
TORONTO — Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen has secured a direct berth to the Players’ Championship semifinals after making a double takeout in the eighth end to score a decisive deuce and defeat Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L. 6-4 Friday night.
McEwen finished pool play with a perfect 5-0 record as he aims to win the Players’ Championship and complete a career Grand Slam.
The team of McEwen, third B.J. Neufeld, second Matt Wozniak and lead Denni Neufeld are now one win away from their fourth Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling final of the season through five events. McEwen lost to Gushue in the Masters championship game and captured the National and Syncrude Elite 10 titles.
“Woo, awesome,” McEwen said after the game while letting out a sigh of relief. “That was a nice test against Brad because that was the battle for first place in our pool, so it was really nice to have a test like that before the playoffs. I enjoyed that.”
McEwen opened with the hammer and converted for a deuce in the first. The teams alternated singles through two and three and Gushue made a neat shot bounce around to avoid giving up a steal and get another point in four to only trail 3-2 at the break.
McEwen blanked the fifth and took one in the sixth to make it 4-2, but Gushue charged with a deuce in seven to tie it.
“It’s one thing to play loose and free and play good under those conditions, it’s another thing to play good when there’s quite a bit on the line and getting a bye to the semis,” McEwen said. “It puts us in a really good position to hold down a really good chunk of change to end the year so that game meant quite a bit.”
It was the lone loss of the round-robin portion for Gushue, who went 4-1 and awaits the winner of the tiebreaker between Glenn Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont., and Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher in the quarterfinals.
Reigning Olympic gold medallist Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., powered past Toronto’s John Epping and into the semifinals with a 7-3 victory. Jacobs (4-1) secured the second bye to the semifinals while Epping (3-2) goes up against Calgary’s Kevin Koe (3-2) in the quarterfinals.
Howard edged Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers 5-4 to make it into the tiebreaker game. Wayne Middaugh will take over for Bottcher as he has to head home to attend his university graduation.
Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock played the spoiler and defeated Jeff Stoughton 5-2 in the legendary Winnipeg skip’s final game. Both missed the playoffs finishing pool play at 2-3.
