Shooter McEwen takes Saville Shootout

Big shots all around as Saskatoon's Mike McEwen outlasted Winnipeg's Jordon McDonald in Saville Shootout Final. McEwen with Colton Flasch at third, Kevin Marsh and Daniel Marsh on the front end came away with an 8-5 victory over McDonald in Monday's Final at the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton. McDonald, with Dallas Burgess, Calan MacIsaac, and Cameron Olafson, entered the final undefeated, receiving the hammer due to their 9-8 win over McEwen in the last draw of the round-robin. MacIsaac of Nova Scotia replaced Elias Huminicki for Saville Shootout, away tending to harvest back home in Manitoba. McDonald opened the game by scoring two points in the first end, with McEwen adding three points in the second end to take their first lead. McDonald continued their strong first half, scoring two points to retake the lead, then forcing McEwen to a single point in the fourth end to maintain the hammer advantage into the second half of the game. The game turned in the fifth end, when McEwen stole two points to take a 6-4 lead, then forced McDonald into a single point in the sixth end. McEwen scored two points to take a three-point lead into the final end, where the Saskatchewa side ran McDonald out of stones for the 8-5 win. McEwen receives 37.5 world ranking points for the win, moving them up one spot on the World Curling Team Rankings to 8th overall. McDonald's opened to the season with a win at last weekend's U25 NextGen Classic and now a runner-up finish at the Saville Shootout, putting them first overall on the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) with 46.3 points. The CTRS is the current year's standing, while the World Curling Team Rankings continuously ranks the game's best teams over last season and this season. McEwen defeated Saskatoon's Rylan Kleiter 7-4 in the semifinals, and McDonald defeated Winnipeg's Reid Carruthers 5-4. In the quarterfinals, Kleiter defeated Koe 8-6 in an extra end, while McEwen won 7-5 over Ethan Sampson of Chaska, Minnesota. McDonald defeated Yusuke Morozumi (Karuizawa, Japan) 8-7, and Carruthers defeated Edmonton's Evan van Amsterdam 8-4. McEwen finished 4-1 in the 20-team round-robin pools qualifying round. In their opening game, McEwen defeated Zach Davies (Edmonton, AB) 7-1, then won 6-1 against Steve Laycock (Swift Current, SK) and 7-1 against Brent Pierce (New Westminister, BC). McEwen won 8-1 against Jacob Libbus (Black Diamond, AB) to clinch a playoff berth, losing their final game to McDonald 9-8.