Mike McEwen’s West St. Paul foursome got its revenge against Colton Lott’s Winnipeg Beach rink in Selkirk on Sunday.
Team McEwen handed the 26-year-old skip a dominant 8-3 loss to clinch a spot in next month’s Tim Hortons Brier.
Lott defeated McEwen 8-7 on Saturday to book a ticket straight to Sunday afternoon’s final, while McEwen was forced to play an extra game against Ryan Wiebe’s Fort Rouge rink early Sunday morning.
The four-time Viterra Championship winner edged Wiebe 10-9 and earn a rematch with Lott in the final.
With Sunday’s win, McEwen is heading to his seventh Brier.
“This one felt like the hardest one,” McEwen said after the win. “I’ve been in a lot of finals and this one really took a lot out of us. Very satisfying but this took a lot out of the team. We were pushed very, very hard.”
He’ll be joined by Reid Carruthers (third), Derek Samagalski (second) and Colin Hodgson (lead).
Hodgson was emotional after the win as he had been playing through a torn left quad injury the whole week.
“I tried to hide it best I could all week, but every slide was painful. Every sweep was painful. I was trying to figure out what I can do, how much do I have in the tank, to get through the game and leave it out there,” Hodgson explained.
“Suppressing all that for so long, win or lose, I think there needed to be a mental release there at the end. The guys had my back all week. This was the most fulfilling provincials I’ve played in regardless of the outcome of that game.”
McEwen added that the team will figure out a plan to try and let Hodgson’s injury heal while they prepare for the 2022 Tim Horton’s Brier, which gets underway from Lethbridge, Alta. on Friday, March 4 and runs until March 13.
While it will be McEwen’s seventh straight appearance at the Brier as a skip, it’ll be the first time since 2019 that his team represents Manitoba instead of being a Wild Card team.
“I thought it didn’t matter what jacket I wore at the Brier. That’s what I thought. I was wrong,” McEwen said. “When you put on the Manitoba colours, there’s just a little bit more sense of responsibility. There’s that pride of representing your province and there’s a little bit of pressure to do well. I want that pressure. I’m going to relish wearing the colours again.”
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