News Tour Challenge

CHARLOTTETOWN — Saskatoon’s Team Mike McEwen put on a show to secure a playoff spot in the HearingLife Tour Challenge.

Team McEwen defeated Team Niklas Edin of Sweden 8-3 Friday in a B-qualifier and “Magic Mike” capped the entertaining win with a triple takeout to score three in the seventh end.

McEwen was up 5-2 in the sixth but had to keep pace with Edin after the reigning world champion made what looked like the shot of the game with a pinball runback on his first skip stone to grab shot rock. However, McEwen matched with a raise takeout of his own to sit two and maintain the moment as Edin was forced to draw for just a single.

“It was really fun out there,” said Kevin Marsh, who throws second and handles vice skip duties for Team McEwen. “The five-rock rule has created some really interesting ends right now with the new age of curling, right? A team like Edin there, they practise all the time, they practise all these fancy runbacks, taps, different rotations and all that stuff. For them to make the shots and then for us to follow up their makes with our own was nice.”

McEwen entered the event riding a 13-game winning streak and capturing three titles on tour. The streak was snapped during his team’s opening game of the tournament against Winnipeg’s Team Matt Dunstone to drop into the B Event early, but McEwen is on fire again with three straight wins.

“It feels really good,” Marsh said. “We came here after playing the Calgary PointsBet, lost our first game and were a little frustrated out there. I’m really happy with how we got used to the ice and rattled off three straight wins now. Obviously, at the Slams you’re always playing really great teams, so you have to play well to win.”

The first Grand Slam of Curling event of the season features triple knockout — with A, B and C Event brackets — where teams must win three games before they lose three to advance to the quarterfinals. 

Team McEwen could afford a loss to start — unlike the single-elimination PointsBet Invitational tournament — although Marsh retained a bit of that mindset.

“I like to treat every game like it’s single elimination, kind of have that attitude going in,” Marsh said. “I think we were a little bit tired in that first game, but like I said we got used to the ice really quickly, caught on and skipper’s playing really well.”

Switzerland’s Team Yannick Schwaller and Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte also advanced from the B-qualifiers. Schwaller defeated Dunstone 8-3 and Whyte beat Calgary’s Team Kevin Koe 6-4.

Whyte was up by one without the hammer in the eighth end and had one second left on his clock when he made a raise to sit two. Koe, looking to force an extra end, redirected his shooter in to remove one but couldn’t pinball to eliminate the other as Whyte prevailed.

Edin, Dunstone and Koe fell to the C-qualifiers for one final shot to reach the playoffs.

Edin meets Team Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., in another rematch of the world championship final after facing once already this week in the A Event. Dunstone takes on Team John Shuster of the United States and Koe clashes with Team James Craik of Scotland.

Craik bounced Switzerland’s Team Michael Brunner 7-2 in a C-semifinal matchup during Draw 15.

Calgary’s Team Brad Jacobs and Team Bruce Mouat of Scotland advanced through the A Event undefeated at 3-0 Thursday and have the day off.

TIER 2

Norway’s Team Magnus Ramsfjell, Germany’s Team Marc Muskatewitz and Team Sam Mooibroek of Whitby, Ont., are moving into the quarterfinals after winning their B-qualifiers.

Ramsfjell doubled up on Team Aaron Sluchinski of Airdrie, Alta., 6-3, Muskatwicz beat Japan’s Team Riku Yanagisawa 5-4 and Mooibroek downed Japan’s Team Yusuke Morozumi 7-1.

That set up the C-qualifiers with Morozumi playing Team Danny Casper of the United States, Yanagisawa facing Scotland’s Team Kyle Waddell and Sluchinski going up against Team Owen Purcell of Halifax.

Purcell eliminated Switzerland’s Team Yves Stocker 7-5 in a C Event semifinal during Draw 15.

UP NEXT

Triple knockout play continues with the women’s C-qualifiers at 8 p.m. AT / 7 p.m. ET at the Bell Aliant Centre. Watch live on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.

Tickets are available at tourchallenge.goigniter.com and online streaming for all Tier 1 games is available here at thegrandslamofcurling.com.

NOTES

The HearingLife Tour Challenge features 64 of the best men’s and women’s teams from around the world split into two tiers. … Tier 2 winners receive invitations to the WFG Masters in January. … Eight teams in each division qualify for Saturday’s quarterfinals … The semifinals are also scheduled for Saturday with the finals set for Sunday.