Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
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Mixed results to kick off the 2026 Brier in St. John’s, Newfoundland for Saskatchewan’s Mike McEwen and Kelly Knapp rinks this weekend.
It’s a 2-1 start to the tournament for the McEwen rink out of Saskatoon’s Nutana Curling Club, splitting their pair of games on Sunday.
Read more:
- Kelly Knapp looking for ‘a bit of redemption’ in second Brier appearance
- ‘Catastrophic error’ eliminates Saskatchewan’s Team McEwen from Brier
- ‘Never dreamed I’d be getting there’: Sask. curler heading to Yukon in effort to qualify for Brier
Coming off an 11-5 victory in their opening game of the week against the Jamie Koe rink representing the Northwest Territories on Saturday, Team McEwen matched up against his brother Kevin Koe and Team Alberta.
Leading 4-3 after the eighth end, McEwen gave up a blank end in the ninth following an impressive takeout from Koe to give the Alberta rink the hammer in the 10th end.
Koe scored a trio of points in the 10th to preserve the 6-4 victory, handing Team McEwen their first loss of the week.
Team McEwen bounced back in their second game of the day, capping off Day 3 of the Brier with a 10-5 drubbing of Yukon’s Thomas Scoffin rink.
Holding a 6-5 lead over Yukon through seven ends, McEwen put the game away in the eighth with a four-spot to force early handshakes between the two rinks and shoot the Saskatchewan group into third place in Pool B.
The Kelly Knapp rink meanwhile only hit the ice once on Sunday after opening up their week on Saturday with a tight 8-6 loss to Canada’s Brad Jacobs rink, the same team which won gold at the Milan Olympics just over a week ago.
Facing off against Nova Scotia’s Kendal Thompson rink, Team Knapp earned their first win of the Brier with an 8-5 win in a game which the Saskatchewan foursome did not trail after the first end.
That win Sunday included a key steal in the eighth end which extended the lead enough for handshakes following the ninth end.
Ending the day with a 1-1 record, the team of Knapp, third Brennen Jones, second Dustin Kidby and lead Mat Ring are tied for fifth place in Pool A.
The Regina-based rink play two games on Monday with a 7 a.m. contest against Team Quebec, before capping off their day with a 5 p.m. matchup against Team PEI.
As for McEwen, third Colton Flasch, second Kevin Marsh and lead Daniel Marsh, they’ll face Northern Ontario’s Sandy MacEwan rink at 12 p.m.
Both the McEwen and Knapp rinks are aiming to become the first Brier champions from Saskatchewan since the Rick Folk rink in 1980.
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