Mike McEwen put an end to Jeff Stoughton’s Olympic quest on Thursday night at MTS Centre.

Just 13 short hours later McEwen felt the same pain and disappointment that Stoughton endured last night.

McEwen watched his Olympic dream come to an end when Kevin Koe drew to the button with the hammer in the tenth end and secured a 5-4 victory over the home crowd favorite on the final round robin draw at the 2013 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings in Winnipeg.

“It’s tough playing a team that’s got nothing to lose,” said McEwen who’s next goal will be qualifying for the Brier. “They seemed pretty lose and they made a lot of shots and we didn’t quite give ourselves enough opportunities and didn’t quite convert on a couple of key moments. It’s tough.”

McEwen finished the round robin with a 3-4 record and could have qualified for a tiebreaker had he won this morning. Kevin Martin beat John Morris 7-6 in an extra end which dropped his old third’s record to 4-3.

“Like anything in life everything is a bit of a learning experience and playing in this large scale is something we haven’t done before, so sure – that’s a bit of wisdom, a bit of experience from this environment and we’ll try to take that forward,” said McEwen.

“It’s excruciating for all these teams,” added the Fort Rouge skip who will be on pins & needles watching his wife Dawn - who plays lead for Jennifer Jones - attempt to win the women’s final Saturday night.

“It’s such a commitment to go through that and it seems like such a long haul till the next one. We’ll have to just refocus and make some new goals and hopefully get back the enjoyment again. Not that this wasn’t fun but we’ll just have to keep that in mind to make sure we’re playing the game for all the right reasons.”

Brad Jacobs, Ryan Fry, E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden ran the table this week at MTS Centre. The reigning Brier champions downed John Epping 7-4 and became the first ever team to go undefeated in the round robin. They finished 7-0 and will play in Sunday’s final against either Martin or Morris.

Waiting for Sunday to arrive though will be as tedious as waiting for paint to dry.

“I think what’s most important about from now till Sunday is coming up with a plan and coming up with some sort of routine, a schedule where we’re filling our day today and tomorrow and even Sunday morning with a strategic plan because there is a long time between now and then," said Jacobs. "We don’t want to be thinking about it too much - as little as we can anyways."

Friday, December 6th
Draw #14
Kevin Koe 5 Mike McEwen 4
Kevin Martin 7 John Morris 6 (ee)
Jeff Stoughton 9 Glenn Howard 3
Brad Jacobs 7 John Epping 4
(end of round robin)

Jacobs (7-0)
Martin (6-1)
Morris (4-3)
McEwen & Stoughton (3-4)
Howard & Koe (2-5)
Epping (1-6)

Women’s Tiebreaker    1:30 p.m.
Chelsea Carey vs Sherry Middaugh

 

photos courtesy Michael Burns/CCA