CAMROSE, Alta. – The wins just keep adding up for Mike McEwen.
A day after needing an extra end to beat Glenn Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont. in the semifinals, the Winnipeg native broke out to a big lead early and never trailed en route to defeating Olympic Gold medallist Brad Jacobs 8-3 in Sunday’s men’s final of the Canada Cup.
The win was the sixth in seven events this season for the McEwen foursome.
“It feels like an explosion of wins the last few months,” he said. “It’s beyond our expectations. We knew we could be the best team in the world but we had to find a new level.”
After making a relatively simple tap back to score two in the first end, the McEwen crew of third B.J. Neufeld, second Matt Wozniak and lead Denni Neufeld stole three in the second for a 5-0 lead.
Jacobs and his rink of third Ryan Fry, second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden tacked on two in the third but McEwen responded with a pick up of two in the fourth end to make it 7-2.
“That was a gift,” McEwen said of the steal and the 5-0 advantage. “That’s not going to happen against a team like that very often, it might not happen again for years. It just shows that being off just a little bit, whether it’s a few extra feet of weight or a few inches of line can dramatically swing a game.”
“We came out sloppy,” a dejected Jacobs said of the first end. “They got two corners on us. It looked real good from that point on if you were McEwen. They got up to a 5-0 lead and that was pretty much game over.”
The McEwen foursome wasn’t missing much, shooting a combined 89 per cent, and even when they did give Jacobs chance in the seventh to get back in the game, the Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. native couldn’t capitalize. Needing just a hit and stick for two, Jacobs got the hit but his shooter rolled out, scoring one and the teams shook hands one end later.
Earlier in the day, Edmonton’s Val Sweeting scored a deuce in the ninth end and earned a steal in the 10th to win the women’s final with a 6-3 victory over Ottawa’s Rachel Homan.
It was a small measure of revenge for Sweeting, who lost to Homan in the final of the Tournament of Hearts last February.
“A great team game, probably our strongest game all week, start to finish and from lead to skip,” said Sweeting after high-fiving part of the large crowd of supporters from her hometown of Vegreville, Alta., just east of Edmonton.
Homan’s last-rock takeout attempt in Sunday’s ninth end hung wide and failed to remove Sweeting’s shot rock from the rings, allowing the Edmonton skip to calmly draw for a go-ahead deuce to break a 3-3 tie.
“I thought it would curl there, the inturn close to the line and it just never came up,” Homan said of her shot. “It just kind of tracked halfway down the sheet and never came up.”
Sweeting’s steal in the 10th end sealed the win.
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