News Elite 10

VICTORIA — Defending champion Mike McEwen of Winnipeg stole a pair of ends to defeat Sweden’s Niklas Edin 2-and-1 to kick off the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling Elite 10 Thursday at the Q Centre.

It was a rematch of last year’s final where McEwen captured the inaugural title in Fort McMurray, Alta.

“I’m amazed that we won,” McEwen said with a smile. “Maybe that’s not the right word, but I’m pretty happy that we were able to get our feet under us. We’ve had a lot of travel and are pretty tired and it was nice to have that performance first day here.”

The Elite 10 is a unique event on tour featuring match play scoring where teams attempt to win the most ends per game by either scoring two or more points with the hammer or stealing at least one point without the hammer. A blank end results in a loss of hammer. New rules for the event this year are tick shots are not allowed on guards sitting on the centre line, sweepers cannot use stopwatches, and teams cannot change the brush heads during the event. 

“I think it’s perfect,” McEwen said. “We need these types of events for the players and for the fans because I think curling is changing. We’ve gone from three rock (free-guard zone) to four rock to five rock and the game is going to keep evolving as the athletes keep getting better and mastering the game and the conditions are just getting that much better. This is the perfect event in the season, the timing is good, we can do some different things and put a quality product out there.”

After Edin stole the second end to open the scoring, McEwen sat two stones in the third to knot it up. Edin attempted an in-off double to score in the fourth but couldn’t get his shooter to roll over enough to hit McEwen’s shot stone and gave up a steal and the lead. McEwen swiped again in five when Edin’s runback double attempt secured shot rock, but his shooter spun up and didn’t stick for second.

The reigning world champion Edin stole the show a year ago making ridiculous runbacks and nailed one in the sixth for a single — resulting in a carryover — and was unable to steal in seven to bring out the handshakes. 

“Thank goodness they were only for singles, I think at the time,” McEwen said. “You don’t want to leave him those if you can avoid it. Make him play something else. Make him play a tap or a draw. Anything but the long angle run stick. He’s just one of the best in the game at that.” 

Meanwhile, Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., covered the pin in the extra end for a 1-up win over Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers. Gushue made a runback double to take the third and stole the fourth for a two-end lead. Carruthers counted three to win the fifth end and stole the sixth to tie it. Neither team scored in the seventh or eighth to force a draw-to-the-button shootout to determine the winner.

Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock also earned a 1-up extra end win over Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher to complete the comeback. Bottcher stole the first end and Laycock counted three in the second to tie it. Bottcher took the third end and stole the fourth to go 2-up. Laycock scored in five and stole in eight. 

The Elite 10 resumes at 4 p.m. PT with Ottawa’s Rachel Homan set to make history as the first women’s rink to play against a men’s team since Sportsnet acquired the GSOC series. 

“I think they’ll hold their own. They’re a very special ladies team. They’ve got a lot of unique abilities,” McEwen said. “Second thing, I’m glad she’s not in my pool.” 

The Elite 10 is the fifth event of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season and runs through to Sunday at the Q Centre at West Shore Parks & Recreation.