(by Jonathan Brazeau)
TORONTO — Mike McEwen has secured a direct berth to the semifinals of the Players’ Championship after making a double takeout to score two in the final end for a 6-4 victory over Brad Gushue on Friday at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
Team McEwen at the 2015 Players’ Championship in Toronto. (Photo: Anil Mungal)
McEwen finished the round-robin with a perfect 5-0 record as he aims to win the Players’ Championship and complete a career Grand Slam.
“Woo, awesome,” McEwen said after the game while letting out a sigh of relief. “That was a nice test against Brad because that was the battle for first place in our pool so it was really nice to have a test like that before the playoffs. I enjoyed that.”
McEwen, from Winnipeg, got on the board to start with a deuce in the first end. The two rinks alternated singles through two and three and Gushue made a neat shot bounce around to avoid giving up a steal and get another point in four but trailed 3-2.
McEwen blanked the fifth and took one in the sixth to make it 4-2 but Gushue charged with a deuce in seven to tie it.
“It’s one thing to play loose and free and play good under those conditions, it’s another thing to play good when there’s quite a bit on the line and getting a bye to the semis,” McEwen said. “It puts us in a really good position to hold down a really good chunk of change to end the year so that game meant quite a bit.”
Gushue, from St. John’s, N.L., finished at 4-1 and meets the winner of Saturday morning’s tiebreaker in the quarterfinals.