McEwen a provincial champ at last

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This article was published 16/02/2016 (3700 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SELKIRK — Mike McEwen is no longer the bridesmaid of Manitoba men’s curling. He’s a provincial champion.

The 35-year-old Wheat City product played a quiet tap to score two in the 10th end of the Viterra Championship final on Sunday to beat Canadian junior champion Matt Dunstone 4-2 at the Selkirk Recreation Complex to cap an undefeated week.

But McEwen, third B.J. Neufeld, second Matt Wozniak and lead Denni Neufeld had already clinched their trip to the Brier in Ottawa (March 5-13) after Dunstone’s 8-4 victory over defending champion Reid Carruthers in the semifinal earlier in the day.

The world juniors overlap the Brier and Dunstone, along with third Colton Lott, second Kyle Doering and lead Rob Gordon, had already agreed to represent Canada in Denmark — even if they won the provincial men’s title.

“It was such a strange feeling playing that final, just because of the underlying story of our already clinching a Brier berth,” McEwen said. “That was really strange, something I could have never foresaw or predicted. The shot at the end still felt the same, but everything leading up to it was a challenge and I never expected to have to focus through a game like that and still make sure we did our best to win the championship.

“We didn’t want to go in second place.”

McEwen will don a Buffalo jacket for the first time since 2003 when he skipped Amber Dawson, Geordie Hargreaves and Kristen Williamson to a provincial mixed title. McEwen also won a pair of junior titles in 2001 and 1998.

He finished second at the 2001 junior nationals, losing the final to Newfoundland and Labrador’s Brad Gushue. In 1998, he lost out to eventual champion John Morris of Ontario.

McEwen, who lost five of the previous six provincial men’s finals, didn’t watch the semifinal, but found out the result soon after Carruthers conceded defeat.

“I felt less pressure. I did — until the last two shots,” McEwen said. “I think throughout the middle of the game and so forth that there was less pressure. It waited to build until the very end versus maybe being there a little bit earlier in the game.”

While McEwen said he would not have lost sleep had his team gone to Ottawa with an asterisk next to its name, finally winning provincials is a load off his shoulders.

“It’s just something we haven’t experienced. We’re going to play for a national championship and represent our province,” he said.

“We’ve been dreaming of that since we were not big enough to throw rocks even halfway down the sheet. We wanted to wear that Manitoba jacket so badly and play for that national championship.”

Now that he’s headed to the Brier, McEwen knows there will be a target on his team’s back as they try to win Manitoba’s first title since Jeff Stoughton skipped a team to national glory in 2011.

“We don’t want to go in our first experience and not do a good job, so there will be pressure on us, even from just ourselves,” McEwen said. “We want to represent this province really well.”

Dunstone believes McEwen will do just that. The 20-year-old applauded the veteran skip on his victory.

“This whole us playing Mike in the final and him getting a bye to the Brier, it’s nothing now because he won the game. He earned his spot. He won the final, so I couldn’t be more happy for him. Nobody’s more deserving for him,” Dunstone said.

“You saw their reaction after (winning). That’s not a team that’s happy with a bye to the Brier. That’s a team that wanted to win a provincial championship.”

EXTRA ENDS: Dunstone and B.J. Neufeld were named to the all-star team along with Carruthers second Derek Samagalski and William Lyburn’s lead Braden Zawada. Justin Richter, who threw third stones for David Bohn, won the Pat Spiring Award for sportsmanship.

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