McEwen, Saskatchewan eliminated from Brier after loss to Manitoba's Carruthers
After a second-place finish at last year's Canadian men's curling championship in Regina, McEwen and company were hoping to get back to the final again this year in Kelowna, B.C., only to fall short of their goal on Friday night in the 3 vs. 4 page qualifier against Manitoba's Reid Carruthers, who earned the 6-4 victory to advance to Saturday's 3 vs. 4 page playoff game.
Following a promising start to the 2025 Brier seven straight wins, McEwen and company lost to Alberta's Brad Jacobs in the final round robin game to cement Saskatchewan into the No. 2 seed in Pool B before losing to Manitoba's Matt Dunstone on Friday afternoon in the 1 vs. 2 page qualifier game.
That forced the Saskatchewan rink — also featuring third Colton Flasch, second Kevin Marsh and lead Daniel Marsh — into a must-win game on Friday night against Carruthers.
And at one point, Saskatchewan looked to be in control of the game against Carruthers, who alongside third BJ Neufeld, second Catlin Schneider — a Regina product — and lead Connor Njegovan finished as the third seed in Pool A with a 6-2 round robin record.
After blanking the first end, McEwen scored the first deuce of the game in the second with hammer before Carruthers responded with two points of his own to tie the game in the third end.
Following back-to-back blank ends, the game was turned on its head in the sixth end as McEwen missed a triple takeout which would have potentially scored three and instead gave up a steal of two to Carruthers.
McEwen was then held to a single point in the seventh before Carruthers scored another deuce in the eighth to take a commanding 6-3 lead.
Saskatchewan got one back in the ninth before Manitoba would run McEwen out of rocks in the 10th end to secure the win and advance to Saturday's 3 vs. 4 page playoff game.
'Monumental error in reading angles,' McEwen said of the missed shot in the sixth end. 'That's the game.
'Should have just drawn for two. I'm not even sure it was there for three … That was it. We controlled the game. We outplayed them the entire game. But we made a catastrophic error.
'We're a better team than that. We shouldn't be making an error like that … No one to blame but ourselves. We gave that away.'
'I would have played (the takeout) if I were him too,' said Carruthers, a former teammate of McEwen's from 2018-21. 'I didn't have steal of two on the table. I thought if he hit it a certain way he may only get one. But to give us the steal of two is obviously fortunate for us.
'It was a big break and a huge momentum swing.'
In the 3 vs. 4 page playoff game on Saturday (2:30 p.m.), Carruthers and company will be playing Brad Jacobs and Team Alberta, who beat Nova Scotia's Owen Purcell 10-6 in the other 3 vs. 4 page qualifier on Friday night.
The winner between Jacobs and Carruthers will advance to Sunday's semifinal (12 p.m.) while the loser will be eliminated. Last year, Jacobs played alongside Carruthers at the Brier before leaving to join his current Alberta team, following the departure of skip Brendan Bottcher, who joined forces with Brad Gushue.
In the 1 vs. 2 page playoff game on Saturday night (8:30 p.m.) it will be three-time defending champion Gushue and Team Canada against Dunstone withe winner advancing directly to Sunday's final (6 p.m.) while the loser will head to the semifinal.
tshire@postmedia.com
Brier playoffs: Saskatchewan's McEwen faces must-win after loss to Manitoba's Dunstone
Here's how the Montana's Brier playoff format works
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