News Canadian Open

Throwback Thursday (TBT) digs through the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling archives as we revisit historical moments of the series. Today we rewind to January 2011 and the Canadian Open final in Oshawa, Ont.

Hockey fans tuning in expecting pre-game coverage of the 2011 NHL All-Star Game were instead treated to a thrilling bonus end of the Canadian Open final.

Mike McEwen met Glenn Howard with both at the top of their game all week posting perfect 7-0 records heading into the championship game. It shouldn’t be a surprise then that an extra end was required to settle this one and hold up the start of CBC’s NHL All-Star Game broadcast.

McEwen opened with the hammer and got out to an early 3-0 lead by scoring a deuce in the second and stealing a point in the third. The teams alternated singles in the fifth and sixth ends as McEwen maintained the three-point advantage. Howard erased the deficit though taking two in the seventh and stealing one in the eighth. McEwen went for a takeout rather than a draw with his last shot and rolled away to concede a point and force OT.

“I’m a skip but I’m probably a hitter by nature,” McEwen told grandslamofcurling.com after the game.

McEwen got a second chance to win it during the extra end in dramatic fashion. Howard made it through a narrow port for a double and sit two forcing McEwen to follow the same path past the wickets with a scorching shot of his own. The Winnipeg native pulled it off with a heat-seeking hit-and-stick single to score the 5-4 victory.

“That was awesome,” McEwen said. “That was a great game. Of course I had a chance to win it in the eighth [end] and I missed the easy shot, so I guess I had to make the hero shot in the extra.”

It was the second career Grand Slam title for McEwen, third B.J. Neufeld, second Matt Wozniak and lead Denni Neufeld after earning their first earlier that season at the World Cup of Curling (now known as the Masters).