News National

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. — Brad Jacobs looks to win his first career Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title in his hometown but will have to go through Mike McEwen, who has been on fire all year long, in the National final Sunday.

Watch the Pinty’s GSOC National final live at 3:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 p.m. PT on Sportsnet East, Ontario, West & Pacific

Who holds the advantage between the two top-ranked teams on the World Curling Tour? Let’s take at look at why either team could win the National championship.

The case for Team McEwen

There’s no question, the hottest rink on the WCT so far this season has been Team McEwen, ranked second overall on the order of merit but first on the year-to-date total.

McEwen won four titles through his first four tournaments of the year and holds a remarkable overall win-loss record of 38-5 entering the National final.

The rink has earned three Grand Slam titles together capturing the World Cup (now know as the Masters) and the Canadian Open during the 2010-11 season and adding another Canadian Open championship in 2011-12. Since then, they’ve been runner-up at three Grand Slam events including the Masters earlier this month.

Even with the 8-6 loss to Team Brad Gushue in the Masters final, McEwen stole the headlines and became a worldwide viral sensation with his amazing shot to score four.

McEwen’s road to the National final: McEwen jumped out to a 2-0 record with a 7-4 win over Heath McCormick and a 7-5 victory to top Winnipeg rival Jeff Stoughton. The team fell 7-3 to John Morris but qualified after beating John Shuster 7-4.

McEwen fell 9-5 to Steve Laycock to finish the round robin but won the quarterfinal rematch 5-4. They faced off against Team McCormick again in the semifinals and earned a 5-2 victory to punch into the final.

“That game and the game before were the best games we’ve played in the event,” McEwen said. “It’s finally nice to see because we were smoke and mirrors before this point to make it into the playoffs so it’s nice to actually play like a playoff team.”

Perhaps the lucky charm for the team has been their red playoff pants that were originally a special gift at the Masters from their sponsor Hardline Curling.

“We’ve been kind of talking about having red pants for four or five years now,” McEwen explained. “We just casually mentioned it to the Hardline guys and they got us some samples made and surprised us. We were excited when we got them because red on Sunday, Tiger Woods kind of, it would be nice to put our own mark. Everybody wears black pants pretty much. … They’re kind of red, they’re pretty bright but you can’t be too picky.”

The case for Team Jacobs

It’s been an incredible dream-like run for Jacobs, starting from winning the Brier in March 2013, running the table at the Canadian Olympic Trials this past December and capturing the gold medal at the Sochi Olympics in February.

The only thing missing for the top-ranked team on the WCT is a Grand Slam title and what better way would it be than to win their first together in their hometown of Sault Ste. Marie?

Jacobs has reached the final at two Grand Slam events — the 2012 Canadian Open and the 2014 Players’ Championship. Third Ryan Fry captured the National in 2010 while playing with Team Brad Gushue and his addition to the Jacobs rink at the start of the 2012-13 season kick-started their rise to the top of the curling mountain.

Road to the final: Jacobs earned a 9-3 win over Mark Kean in Draw 1 to open the National. They then hit a rut and dropped two in a row, losing in identical 5-4 games to Adam Casey and defending champion Glenn Howard.

During game four against Matthew Blandford, Jacobs was in danger of elimination with the score tied 3-3 and Blandford holding the hammer coming home in the eighth. Blandford couldn’t get the winning point though and gave up a steal of one — and the victory — handing Jacobs a chance to keep his hopes alive.

Jacobs topped John Epping 5-2 to finish the round robin and qualify, but faced second-seed Reid Carruthers, who cruised through with a 5-0 record. Team Jacobs continued to roll scoring the winning deuce in the fifth and steal one in the seventh to grab a 6-3 victory that set up a semifinal match with Brendan Bottcher.

The Bottcher rink had been on a Cinderella run finishing 4-1 in the round robin — qualifying at a Grand Slam for the first time in their careers — and routing Morris’ Team Canada rink 7-1 in the quarterfinals. Jacobs poured on the pressure scoring two in the second, stealing one in the third and two in the fourth en route to winning 8-2.

Fry said it was a big thing for the team to switch it up midway through the tournament and opt to stay in the hotel like it was any other tournament.

“It just shows that routine is a big part of our team, it’s big part of sport and when you break the routine a little bit you kind of get out of your comfort zone,” Fry said. ‘We were able to put ourselves back in and things have been going good since then.”

Team Jacobs has the momentum now with four wins in a row and will continue to feed off of the hometown crowd that has been roaring for them during each and every game.