Team McEwen’s 11-year run ends in Champions Cup quarterfinals
CALGARY — Team McEwen’s run reached the end of the line in the Humpty’s Champions Cup quarterfinals.
The Winnipeg club closed out their 11th and final season together falling to Bruce Mouat after the Scottish side overcame a four-point deficit and completed the comeback 7-6 in an extra end Saturday at WinSport Arena.
Team McEwen, who won seven Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling titles, now head their separate ways for next season. Skip Mike McEwen is moving onto Team Carruthers to throw fourth stones, third B.J. Neufeld links up with Team Koe while his brother, lead Denni Neufeld, joins Team Gunnlaugson at second.
“It was a good run,” Team McEwen second Matt Wozniak said. “We’re still good friends, our families are pretty tight, I’ll still be cheering for the guys on their teams but it was time. Most teams don’t last 11 years. I think it’s pretty rare for that, so I was pretty proud of what we’ve done and it’s time to move on.”
Team Mouat fell into a hole early with a shaky start and the skip flubbing a draw against three that cleared the rings to give up a trio steal. It got worse before it got better as Mouat misfired an angle-raise attempt in the second running it straight back to concede another point.
The Boost National champion Mouat got back on track in the third capitalizing after McEwen’s rock picked to pull off a double for three.
McEwen hit and rolled out for just a single in five and Mouat erased the deficit to tie it up 5-5 nudging a counter aside for two in the sixth.
Mouat stole the lead in seven with McEwen needing to draw for a single and coming up short.
McEwen was able to count one in the eighth to force the extra end but couldn’t get the steal to stay in the tournament. Mouat made a tantalizing runback triple takeout on his first skip stone and didn’t need to throw his last as McEwen was short again on the draw.
Mouat moves on to the semifinals against Glenn Howard, of Tiny, Ont. The 16-time Grand Slam champion scored two in the eighth to oust American Team Greg Persinger, skipped by third Rich Ruohonen, 7-6.
Calgary’s own Kevin Koe chased away Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher 5-2 and will play Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., who eliminated Winnipeg’s Jason Gunnlaugson 4-2.
Ottawa’s Rachel Homan faces Scotland’s Eve Muirhead and Jennifer Jones takes on Kerri Einarson in an all-Winnipeg battle during the women’s semifinals.
The men’s and women’s semifinals are set for 8 p.m. MT at WinSport Arena with broadcast coverage on Sportsnet 360 and online streaming at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare TV (international).
