ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Mike McEwen knew his Saskatoon-based squad would be walking into the lion’s den Thursday night at the Kioti National, so why not embrace the heel role?
McEwen faced St. John’s own Brad Gushue, who brought along roughly 6,000 of his closest friends to pack the Mary Brown’s Centre.
The crowd was already fired up, clapping and stomping along during practice as traditional Newfoundland folk songs played while they waited to watch their modern-day folk hero play. Once the warmups commenced, that was McEwen and his teammates’ cue to duck off the ice. As the glass shattered and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s theme music hit, Team McEwen returned with Colton Flasch draped in the Saskatchewan flag and twins Kevin and Dan Marsh raising their decorated ugly sticks.
It was all played to laughs as attention then turned to the team that needed no introduction — although there was one, you just couldn’t hear MC Robbie Doherty through the roar of the capacity crowd.
That more than set the tone for an electric evening and one that McEwen emerged victorious over the home side in an intense 4-3 battle.
The two skips have faced off since they were teenagers in juniors and Thursday’s contest was their 61st meeting in men’s play. McEwen holds the advantage 34-27 all-time and has had Gushue’s number this season at 4-0.
Winning the draw-to-the-button shootout to start proved to be key for McEwen as it allowed him to dictate the play and never trail in the match.
After three consecutive blanks to start, the crowd started to dial back and grow a bit restless for some offence. Gushue ensured there wouldn’t be a fourth set of bagels on the board as he sat at least two counters, with a third one too close enough for comfort, that forced McEwen into making an angle raise bump for one point.
The tables were turned in the fifth end after Gushue rubbed off a guard with his first skip stone. That allowed McEwen to add another log to the fire, drawing in to sit four and Gushue had to make a raise of his own to score the equalizing single.
McEwen scored a deuce in the sixth to pull ahead 3-1 as his raise takeout just grazed his stone as the back end of the 12-foot circle to remain in the rings.
A couple of mistakes in the seventh had McEwen in trouble until he bailed his team out with a clutch cross-house double to limit the damage.
Gushue drew for a tying two points, and landed on the lid to boot, as the crowd erupted and even a hockey horn went off.
Still, that put McEwen right where he wanted to be — holding the hammer coming home — and he just had to chip out Gushue’s shot rock while avoiding his stone right behind it in the house to score the winning point.
The crowd has shown its support for all curlers this week and McEwen remained at ice level long after the game had finished, even after Team Gushue had left, to sign autographs and take selfies with fans.
McEwen moved to a 3-0 record in the tournament to punch a playoff ticket while handing Gushue his first loss of the week.
Gushue (2-1) will have another chance to qualify Friday when he takes on Switzerland’s Team Marco Hösli (1-2). McEwen will look to fine-tune things against former teammate and longtime friend Reid Carruthers (1-2).
Hösli will be hungry for another win to stay in contention after defeating Carruthers’s Winnipeg club 8-3 on the adjacent sheet.
Team Michael Brunner (1-2) also got in the win column with a 6-5 decision against Switzerland’s Team Yannick Schwaller (0-3) in an all-Swiss showdown.
Yannick Schwaller is out of the lineup after undergoing knee surgery. His brother, Kim Schwaller, is filling in at second with Sven Michel moving up to throw third and skip the squad.
Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte (3-0) qualified for the quarterfinals with a 9-5 victory over Germany’s Team Marc Muskatewitz (1-2). Whyte held the hammer tied coming home and made a raise double takeout to score four points.
The final four round-robin draws are set for Friday beginning with Draw 13 at 8:30 a.m. NT / 7 a.m. ET.
Broadcast coverage resumes on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ resumes at noon NT / 10:30 a.m. ET.
The Kioti National is the third Grand Slam of Curling event of the season featuring 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world. … Round-robin play runs through to Friday. The top eight teams in both divisions advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals. If necessary, one tiebreaker draw will be played Saturday morning to determine the final playoff spots. … The semifinals are also scheduled for Saturday with both finals on tap Sunday.