Brier Day 4: Saskatchewan’s McEwen suffers first loss on Monday against Nova Scotia

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It was a Monday full of upsets at the 2024 Montana’s Brier.

And unfortunately for Team Saskatchewan, they were part of one of them.

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In their lone game on Day 4 of the Canadian men’s curling championship in Regina, Mike McEwen and Team Saskatchewan lost 7-4 to Matthew Manuel and Nova Scotia, who earlier in the day upset Alberta’s Aaron Sluchinski for their first win of the event.

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It was one of several other upsets on the day as Canada’s Brad Gushue lost to Northwest Territories’ Jamie Koe, Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher lost to Northern Ontario’s Trevor Bonot and Alberta’s Kevin Koe lost to Quebec’s Julien Tremblay.

After winning their first three games to start the Brier, Team Saskatchewan — also featuring third Colton Flasch, second Kevin Marsh and lead Daniel Marsh — dropped to 3-1 in the Pool B standings with four games remaining in the round robin.

“We just collectively didn’t create enough chances,” said McEwen. “And we certainly left some points out there.

“We kind of beat ourselves.”

In front of 3,238 spectators at the Brandt Centre, McEwen said his team had a hard time adjusting to the ice on Monday, which he says was different than when the team beat Koe’s Alberta rink on Sunday afternoon.

“We struggled a little bit with the speed of the ice,” said the skip, who is in his ninth Brier. “The surface was wonky.

“I don’t know if it was an airflow or a temperature thing but that was the most inconsistent the surface has been — we’ve only played four games — but that was night and day from the weekend.”

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While some of the upsets on Monday can be attributed to the strong field at this year’s Brier, McEwen said the ice conditions likely played a part in it as well.

“You saw some really uncharacteristic misses by high-end players today,” said McEwen. “Obviously the field is capable. There’s a lot of teams that are capable of beating some of the best teams.

“(But) you don’t see Bottcher miss a draw to the eight foot by 10 feet. And I think that’s a product of the surface being a bit tough.

“And we missed some of those draws by 10 feet. And that’s why we weren’t able to convert enough offence and that’s where they beat us.”

Like their first three matches, this game came down to the final shot despite it being a 7-4 result.

After a blank in the first end, Saskatchewan missed a few takeouts in the second end, which left McEwen with a tough final shot as he had to navigate a small port with his last rock. But the Saskatchewan skip was able to make the takeout to score a deuce, taking the early 2-0 lead.

Nova Scotia responded with an open draw for two in the third to tie the game before the teams blanked the fourth end.

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In the fifth with Manuel sitting shot rock, McEwen had a tight draw to the button to score one, but it bounced just off the Nova Scotia rock, resulting in a steal of one.

McEwen got that point back in the next end as he played the runback takeout with his final shot to score one, making it a 3-3 game.

In the seventh, Manuel had a tight double takeout to score two, but the shot was narrowly missed as Nova Scotia came away with a single point to go up 4-3.

In the eighth, McEwen made a great draw to the four foot behind cover with his first before Manuel responded with a freeze on top of that rock to sit one.

McEwen was then forced to make a tough in-off and have his shooter roll to shot rock, which he made to the delight of the home crowd to tie the game 4-4.

In the ninth, with a crowded house, McEwen raised his own rock for shot stone with his last, before Manuel did the same to score one, taking a 5-4 lead into the final end.

With a mess of rocks in the house in the final end — and running out of time on the shot clock — McEwen missed a runback with his final shot which would have tied the game.

Instead, Nova Scotia came away with a steal of two for the win. Overall, Saskatchewan curled at 84 per cent while Nova Scotia curled at 92 per cent.

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Saskatchewan will now look to bounce back on Tuesday afternoon at 2 p.m. against Sluchinski and Alberta.

Other Draw 9 scores

Canada (Gushue) 8, Alberta (Koe) 3

The two top-ranked teams in Pool B went head-to-head on Monday night, after each being upset in the morning draw.

And it was Gushue and Canada getting the better of Koe and Alberta in the feature matchup, as the Newfoundland-based rink came away with the 8-3 win after Gushue made a perfect draw to the button behind cover to score three in the eighth.

 P.E.I. (Smith) 8, Alberta (Sluchinski) 5

A back-and-forth game that saw each team score with hammer in the first eight ends, Tyler Smith and Prince Edward Island stole a single point in the final end to beat Sluchinski 8-5 for their second win of the day.

Northwest Territories (Koe) 9, Nunavut (Latimer) 2

Jamie Koe kept his strong start at the Brier going as his Northwest Territories rink beat Shane Latimer’s Nunavut squad 9-2 on Monday night.

Koe is now 4-1 and off to a great start in what is his 17th career Brier appearance.

Draw 7 scores (Monday morning)

Northwest Territories (Koe) 7, Canada (Gushue) 5

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In the first upset of the day, the Northwest Territories picked up its first-ever win over Team Canada as Jamie Koe and company beat Gushue and the two-time defending champions 7-5.

Gushue missed a double for three in the eighth end and resulted in a steal of one for Koe, who also stole one point in the fourth and two points in the fifth.

Quebec (Tremblay) 11, Alberta (Koe) 6

In another upset, Quebec beat Kevin Koe and his Alberta rink 11-6, handing the four-time Brier champion his third loss in his first four games.

Tremblay carried a 7-5 lead through six ends and then scored a massive four points in the seventh to basically seal the victory, which was his second in the first four games.

Nova Scotia (Manuel) 6, Alberta (Sluchinski) 2

And a third upset in Draw 7 on Monday morning as Nova Scotia picked up its first win of the Brier, beating previously undefeated Sluchinski and Alberta 6-2.

This game featured three straight stolen points by Manuel, which was too much for the Alberta champions to bounce back from.

Prince Edward Island (Smith) 10, Nunavut (Latimer) 3

Team P.E.I. cruised to a win in the morning draw with a 10-3 victory over Nunavut. Smith scored deuces in the third and fifth ends before adding four points in the seventh.

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Draw 8 scores (Monday afternoon)

Northern Ontario (Bonot) 6, Alberta (Bottcher) 5

The upsets continued into the afternoon draw as Northern Ontario’s Trevor Bonot stunned Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher 6-5.

Bottcher’s No. 1 ranked squad gave up steals of one in the last two ends to drop to 3-1, while Bonot improved to 3-1.

B.C. (Schneider) 6, New Brunswick (Grattan) 3

Regina product Catlin Schneider started the brier with back-to-back losses, but the skip of Team B.C. has rebounded nicely with two straight wins, including Monday’s 6-3 victory over James Grattan and New Brunswick, who remain winless.

Manitoba (Dunstone) 15, Yukon (Scoffin) 2

Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone picked up his second straight victory with a 15-2 win over Thomas Scoffin and Team Yukon.

In the match, Dunstone stole three points in the fifth end, four points in the sixth and three more in the seventh while curling at 98 per cent.

Ontario (Howard) 7, Newfoundland/Labrador (Symonds) 3

After back-to-back losses, Ontario’s Scott Howard rebounded with a 7-3 win over Newfoundland’s Andrew Symonds on Monday to move to 2-2.

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The turning point in this one happened early, as Howard and company picked up a first-end steal of three.

Tuesday schedule

Draw 10 – 9 a.m.

• Manitoba (Dunstone) vs. New Brunswick (Grattan)
• Ontario (Howard) vs. Northern Ontario (Bonot)
• B.C. (Schneider) vs. Manitoba (Carruthers)
• Newfoundland/Labrador (Symonds) vs. Yukon (Scoffin)

Draw 11 – 2 p.m.

• Saskatchewan (McEwen) vs. Alberta (Sluchinski)
• Alberta (Koe) vs. Nova Scotia (Manuel)
• Canada (Gushue) vs Nunavut (Latimer)
• P.E.I. (Smith) vs. Quebec (Tremblay)

Draw 12 – 7 p.m.

• Manitoba (Dunstone) vs. Alberta (Bottcher)
• B.C. (Schneider) vs. Northern Ontario (Bonot)
• Manitoba (Carruthers) vs. New Brunswick (Grattan)
• Ontario (Howard) vs. Yukon (Scoffin)

Pool A standings after Day 4 (Monday)

1. Manitoba (Carruthers) 3-0
2. Northern Ontario (Bonot) 3-1
3. Alberta (Bottcher) 3-1
4. Manitoba (Dunstone) 2-1
5. Ontario (Howard) 2-2
6. B.C. (Schneider) 2-2
7. Yukon (Scoffin) 1-2
8. New Brunswick (Grattan) 0-3
9. Newfoundland (Symonds) 0-4

Pool B standings after Day 4 (Monday)

1. Northwest Territories (Koe) 4-1
2. Saskatchewan (McEwen) 3-1
3. P.E.I (Smith) 3-1
4. Canada (Gushue) 3-2
5. Alberta (Sluchinski) 2-2
6. Quebec (Tremblay) 2-2
7. Nova Scotia (Manuel) 2-3
8. Alberta (Koe) 1-4
9. Nunavut (Latimer) 0-4

*the top three teams from each pool make the playoffs

tshire@postmedia.com

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