Saskatchewan’s Mike McEwen emerged from the Canadian men’s curling championship’s opening weekend as a front-runner.
A 3-0 start, which included wins over four-time champion Kevin Koe and five-time winner Brad Gushue, gave the host province a head start on earning an advantageous playoff seed at the Montana’s Brier in Regina.
“I think it shows what we’re capable of,” McEwen said Sunday following a 6-5 win over Koe.
“We can definitely hang with these teams. It’s still a long week ahead of us. We saw P.E.I. take us right to a last-shot victory on Friday night, so I’m not taking anybody for granted.
“I would have taken two and one out of this opening weekend, so three and oh even better.”
The last Saskatchewan team to win a Brier was Rick Folk’s in 1980.
The top three teams in each pool of nine at the end of pool play Thursday advance to Friday’s six-team playoff, which determines Saturday’s four Page playoff teams.
Teams that finish first and second in their pools aren’t eliminated if they lose their first playoff game.
Sunday’s Brier winner represents Canada at the world championship March 30 to April 7 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland and returns to the 2025 Brier in Kelowna, B.C., as defending champion.
The victor also gets a berth in the 2025 Olympic curling trials, pending a top-six result at the world championship.
Gushue and Jamie Koe of Northwest Territories improved to 2-1 and Alberta’s Aaron Sluchinski to 2-0 with Pool B victories Sunday afternoon.
Heading into Sunday evening’s Pool A draw, Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher, Manitoba’s Reid Carruthers and Northern Ontario’s Trevor Bonot were tied at 2-0 ahead of Ontario’s Scott Howard and Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone at 1-1.
Flasch is the lone Saskatchewan player to have previously hoisted the Tankard trophy. He played second for Kevin Koe’s team that ran the table in 2019 with a 13-0 record in Brandon, Man.
Flasch thought Sunday’s win was his first over his former skip since they were teammates.
“Thank god we did it today,” Flasch said. “That was a huge win. I wouldn’t call it a must-win, but it was up there. Beating Koe and Gushue gives us a good chance to get that number one seed now.”
Kevin Koe felt the heat of a 1-2 start in Regina. He’s playing a second season with third Tyler Tardi and lead Karrick Martin, and his first with second Jacques Gauthier.
“We’re not where we want to be,” the skip said. “We feel we should be competing here and we feel like we’re a playoff team. Right now, we’re not.”
Gushue bounces back
Gushue rebounded from a loss to McEwen to beat Quebec’s Julien Tremblay 9-7. Jamie Koe, who is Kevin’s younger brother, defeated Nova Scotia 8-7 in an extra end.
Sluchinski clawed back from an early four-point deficit to score four in the 10th end and win 12-10 over Nunavut’s Shane Latimer.
Gushue drew the button against a Quebec counter for the win.
“It was nice to get a pressure draw early like that in the week because if you’re going to win these, you’re probably going to have to make one or two of those in the playoffs, or maybe even to get into the playoffs,” Gushue said. “I personally felt a lot better today and made a lot more shots than I did last night.”
Tremblay dropped to 1-2 alongside Kevin Koe, Nunavut fell to 0-2 and Manuel to 0-3 in Pool B.
Prince Edward Island’s Tyler Smith was 1-1, B.C.’s Catlin Schneider and Newfoundland and Labrador’s Andrew Symonds were 0-2 and Yukon’s Thomas Scoffin 0-1 in Pool A.
