SELKIRK, Man. — Mike McEwen faces Brad Gushue in the Masters men’s final Sunday as the Winnipeg skip looks to win a Grand Slam of Curling title right in his home province.
The team of McEwen, third BJ Neufeld, second Matt Wozniak and lead Denni Neufeld dashed out of the gate to start the season winning four titles in four World Curling Tour events. Entering Sunday’s final they sport an incredible overall win-loss record of 33-2.
Watch the men’s final at 3 p.m. ET / Noon PT on Sportsnet East, Ontario, West and Pacific.
The team rolled through their first three games at the Masters but fell to John Morris’ rink to close out the round robin. McEwen bounced back big time to defeat Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock 9-3 in the quarterfinals and made quick work of Olympic gold medallist Brad Jacobs, of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., with a 7-2 win in five ends in the semis.
Team McEwen won this tournament in 2010 (when it was called the World Cup of Curling) to earn their first career Grand Slam of Curling title. McEwen has also won the Canadian Open in the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons.
Since then McEwen has been a finalist twice at the Grand Slams, finishing runner-up at the National and the Players’ Championship in 2012-13.
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Looking to halt the red-hot McEwen team is Gushue. The St. John’s team dropped their opening draw match to Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton, but have been on a roll since winning three straight to qualify and avenging the loss to Stoughton with a 5-4 win in the quarterfinals. Gushue had to grind out a 6-5 victory over Toronto’s John Epping in the semis after missing a double and giving up a steal of one in the eighth but secured his spot in the final with a single in the extra end.
“We’ve been scrapping out games,” Gushue said. “I wouldn’t say we’ve been dominant, I think we’re playing strategically games. We’re making some key shots just a little bit more timing than anything to be honest with you. It hasn’t been dominant but it’s been successful and hopefully we can step it up because I know we can play better but the key is we’ve got to keep making the timely shots we’ve been making.”
Gushue tweaked his roster during the off-season with 2006 Olympic gold medallist teammate Mark Nichols returning to the rink at third, Brett Gallant moving over to second while Geoff Walker remained at lead.
Gushue and Nichols also won the National Grand Slam of Curling title together in January 2010 before Nichols departed to Stoughton’s team in 2012.
Team Gushue was a finalist at two Grand Slam events this past season. Both times Gushue was unable to secure the hammer for the eighth end and lost by a single point. Gushue fell to Calgary’s Kevin Koe 5-4 at the Canadian Open and to Glenn Howard, of Penetanguishene, Ont., 7-6 in the National final.
Gushue said there is no secret to cracking the code and defeating Team McEwen, it’ll just come down to those timely makes or untimely misses.
“For us, we’ve been making those key shots at the right time and hopefully we do that (in the final),” Gushue said. “We know we’re probably going to have to play as good or better that we’ve been playing because they’re a good team, they’re consistent and you know you’re not going to get them to come out and lie down against you. They’re going to come out and play a really solid game.”