Brier Takeaways: Final draw costs Mike McEwen spot in playoffs 

How much pain can Mike McEwen take at the Brier?

The 2026 Montana’s Brier playoffs are set, and “Magic Mike”, along with his Saskatchewan teammates Colton Flasch, Kevin Marsh and Dan Marsh, will not be in the mix for the championship after they lost to Manitoba’s Team Matt Dunstone 6-3 on Thursday night in St. John’s to wrap up round-robin play.

McEwen, one of the favourites to make the playoffs, finished with the same 5-3 record as Braden Calvert from Manitoba, who was making his Brier debut. Since Calvert beat McEwen head-to-head, he earned the third and final spot in Pool B. Kevin Koe (8-0) and Dunstone (7-1) finished as the top two seeds.

Coming into the game, it was easy for McEwen. Win and you clinch a spot. Lose and you need Calvert, who was playing Northern Ontario at the same time, to lose as well.

For the first five ends, Saskatchewan controlled the play. Even though the game was only tied 2-2, McEwen was curling 98 per cent – albeit two ends were blanks – and had the hammer heading in the all-important even sixth end. 

In the second half, though, like some of McEwen’s matches earlier this week, his game dipped. In the sixth, he was forced to take one and let Dunstone flip the hammer to the eighth end with a blank in seven. Dunstone grabbed his deuce and took the lead for the first time since he was forced in the opening end. 

In the ninth end, McEwen did the right thing. There wasn’t a chance to score three, so he instead bailed and earned a blank to keep the hammer heading to the final end down 4-3. 

It wasn’t until just a couple stones into the 10th end that McEwen heard the roar from across the ice for Calvert after he earned an 8-4 victory, meaning it was win or go home for McEwen. 

Give Dunstone credit, his team played a great end, and there was never really a chance for McEwen to generate his deuce to win the game. With Dunstone’s final shot, he got rid of a potential in-off McEwen could use, leaving him with only half of the button to draw to for his single to force an extra end. 

McEwen came up well short of the mark as Flasch pushed the rock away in frustration while just within the guard zone. This eliminated them from the playoffs and wrapped up what was a disappointing week for McEwen, while Calvert celebrated off to the side.

It is important to mention that McEwen was battling a head cold but felt OK enough to compete throughout the round robin. 

Now, with the quadrennial event over, it will be hard to imagine McEwen’s team staying together. Flasch and the Marsh brothers are talented younger players, while McEwen is 45, and the results just haven’t been what you’d expect.

Either way, McEwen will have to wait another year to try and earn his first Brier championship.

Ontario’s Jayden King reaches playoffs in Brier debut

This has been quite the Brier debut for Ontario’s Jayden King and his teammates Dylan Niepage, Owen Henry and Victor Pietrangelo.

Forget the fact that King became the first Black skip in Brier history – which is incredible – but as the youngest team in the field, they have secured a playoff spot after going 5-3 on the week.

Throughout the entire round robin, King and his rink have made heads turn, including those of Mark Nichols and Geoff Walker when he made a couple of out-of-this-world shots in the fourth and eighth ends to keep Ontario in the game against Newfoundland & Labrador. 

Even though Ontario lost that game and its next one to Brad Jacobs – talk about a rough schedule – you could tell the rookie squad could compete.

Ontario proved that in arguably its biggest game of the competition against Quebec on Wednesday night. Ontario came into the game with a 3-3 record and faced a must-win situation to keep its playoff hopes alive. Quebec was 4-2, and with a win, it would clinch the final playoff spot.

A huge three-ender in the seventh end, along with Quebec getting greedy in the ninth end, propelled Ontario to an 8-7 victory to give it the head-to-head advantage. With the win, King controlled his own path against Saskatchewan’s Kelly Knapp on Thursday.

Win and you’re in. 

However, right away, King and his rink faced adversity by giving up a deuce in the first end. Just like their previous seven games, they never got mad at one another and kept a positive mindset – something so impressive for a young team. They immediately answered back with a score of four (!) to take charge.

Knapp would tie the game 4-4 after four ends, but that’s the closest he got to ruining King’s chances to make the playoffs as Ontario went on to win 9-4. 

Obviously, going forward, Ontario will be the underdog against whoever it faces in the Page 3-4 qualifier match. But no matter what happens, this Ontario rink has so much to be proud of. 

It feels like the start of a team we will remember for a long time. 

Brad Gushue and Kevin Koe earn No. 1 seeds

Newfoundland & Labrador’s Brad Gushue and Alberta’s Kevin Koe, who both finished as the No. 1 seed in their pools, couldn’t have had different days on Thursday. 

For Gushue, even though he was 7-0, he had to face the Olympic gold medalists and defending Brier champions in Brad Jacobs and his rink. Meanwhile, Koe had what most would call a much easier day, facing British Columbia and the Yukon.

In the Battle of the Brads, it almost felt like a Brier final, with nobody giving the other team any chances while playing lights-out curling. For Koe, he basically coasted to the finish line with ease. Gushue pulled out the 4-2 victory in the end to stay undefeated as Koe dominated both games to go 8-0 as well.

Now, both will have a tough matchup in the Page 1-2 qualifier game on Friday. Koe will face Jacobs while Gushue will take on Dunstone. 

The winner will advance to the Page 1-2 game on Saturday.