Brier Playoffs: Final draw costs Mike McEwen and leaves Saskatchewan searching
Under the arena lights in St. John’s, the final draw that decided the brier playoffs felt like an exhale and a gasp at once: cheers across the sheet for one rink, stunned silence as another’s last shot came up short. Mike McEwen’s Saskatchewan squad left the ice after a 6-3 loss that, combined with a rival result, closed the door on their week.
Who made the Brier Playoffs and who was left out?
The top seeds in Pool B were Kevin Koe at 8-0 and Matt Dunstone at 7-1. Mike McEwen finished the round robin 5-3, level with Braden Calvert, but Calvert’s earlier head-to-head win over McEwen gave the Manitoba debutant the final spot in the pool. McEwen’s 6-3 loss to Dunstone on the night wrapped up round-robin play and eliminated Saskatchewan from contention. On the opposite side of the draw, Ontario’s Jayden King and his teammates Dylan Niepage, Owen Henry and Victor Pietrangelo secured a playoff berth after going 5-3, a breakout week that included several highlight shots noticed by even Mark Nichols and Geoff Walker.
What happened in Mike McEwen’s decisive game?
McEwen’s rink — Colton Flasch, Kevin Marsh and Dan Marsh — controlled much of the early play but could not convert late. The game was tied in the midends, and McEwen blanked the ninth to keep the hammer for the 10th, only to come up short on the final draw with Dunstone’s last stone removing a potential in-off option. That miss, coming after a week in which McEwen’s play dipped at key moments, left the team on the outside looking in. McEwen had been battling a head cold but had continued to compete through the round robin. For McEwen, who is 45, the result caps a disappointing week and raises questions about the team’s future together after a recent run of stronger performances in past championships.
What does this mean for Saskatchewan and what comes next?
Both Saskatchewan squads missed the playoff round: McEwen’s team finished 5-3, and Kelly Knapp’s Regina-based rink closed the week at 3-5 after a 9-4 loss to Jayden King. The Saskatoon-based squad, which was formed in 2024 and had posted 7-1 round-robin records in the previous two years, fell short of expectations this event. For Knapp — a team comprising Brennen Jones, Dustin Kidby and Mat Ring — the result continued a pattern of near misses. Meanwhile Jayden King’s performance carried extra resonance: as the first Black skip in Brier history, his team’s playoff clinch stands out as a milestone alongside on-ice success.
The immediate aftermath is practical and personal. Teams that just missed the playoff ice will reassess personnel and plans; players and coaches will parse the tiny margins — a missed draw, a surrendered deuce, a head cold — that make the difference between advancing and packing up. For fans from Saskatchewan, it is a familiar sting: the province has not claimed a national men’s title since a championship cited in the record, and this week’s exit prolongs that drought.
Back in the arena, where the roar for Braden Calvert’s concurrent victory echoed across the sheets and where McEwen’s final delivery was pushed away in frustration, the brier playoffs had already begun to reshape narratives. The spare benches emptied, stones were gathered, and conversations turned toward what comes next — for McEwen, for Knapp, and for a province used to high hopes.
As the lights dimmed on this night in St. John’s, the image of a McEwen team walking off the ice lingered: a moment of palpable disappointment, but also the start of decisions that will determine whether this week becomes a turning point or a closing chapter. The brier playoffs had their winners; Saskatchewan must now decide how to answer.
