Submitted by Curl Manitoba
Mike McEwen and his West St. Paul team have won the 2022 Viterra Manitoba Men’s Curling Championship. McEwen, with third Reid Carruthers, second Derek Samagalski, lead Colin Hodgson and Coach Rob Meakin won a pair of games Sunday in Selkirk to earn their second title as a team. Team McEwen had previously won the championship together in 2019.
Entering the championship as the #1 seed and favourite to win, Team McEwen had lost the Page 1-1 Playoff game Saturday evening to Colton Lott and his Winnipeg Beach team. Lott was supported by his brother Tanner at third, with second Kyle Doering and lead Emerson Klimpke.
The loss put them in the Sunday morning semi-final game which they won, with a last shot draw, 10-9 over Ryan Wiebe – Fort Rouge, with Ty Dillello, Sean Flatt and Adam Flatt.
The afternoon final against Team Lott opened in the Winnipeg Beach team’s favour with a two on the first end. McEwen came back to score two on the second end and began to take control when the veteran team forced their younger opponents to a single on the third.
After blanks on the fourth and fifth ends, Team McEwen scored a three on the sixth end to lead 5-3 enroute to an 8-3, eight end victory.
This year’s victory is the fourth Manitoba men’s title for Mike McEwen, who won as skip in 2016, 2017 and 2019, and Hodgson, who was at lead for Carruthers in 2015 and 2018 as well as for McEwen in 2019. For Samagalski, it is a fifth Manitoba men’s title after he won as lead for Rob Fowler in 2012 and as second for Carruthers in 2015 and 2018 as well as for McEwen in 2019.
It is a seventh Manitoba men’s title for Carruthers who won three times at second for Jeff Stoughton, including a Brier and World title in 2011 followed by Manitoba wins in 2013 and 2014. He also won as skip in 2015 and 2018 and as McEwen’s third in 2019.
In addition, McEwen owns a pair of Manitoba Junior Men’s titles and a Manitoba Mixed title; Carruthers has a Junior Men’s and a Mixed championship and Samagalski has won a Mixed and a Mixed Doubles final game.
Team McEwen earns the opportunity to represent Manitoba at the Tim Hortons Brier in Lethbridge in March.
