NORTH BAY – At 40, Sandy MacEwan is about to be a Brier rookie.
The Sudbury skip on Sunday did what no other team in North Bay could at this week’s Northern Ontario men’s curling championship – defeat defending champion John Epping – capturing his first provincial title with a thrilling come-from-behind win that came down to one final shot.
The shot itself was almost anti-climactic.
Epping, who didn’t take the lead in the game until he managed to orchestrate a pair in the ninth end, was left with a double takeout to try to extend the match. But he could only get one to go, jamming MacEwan’s other stone in the back 12-foot.
It left MacEwan an open draw to the rings for a 6-5 win.
Halfway down the sheet of ice, MacEwan knew he and his teammates were champions.
He thumped his broom emphatically on the ice at the North Bay Granite Club, whooped in celebration and hugged his teammates, the emotion of the moment not lost on any of them.
“Where’s my mom?” MacEwan asked, pointing to the gallery watching from above.
She got the biggest hug of them all.
What a feeling, said MacEwan, having lived through multiple provincial play-down finals, coming up short every time.
Not this year.
“It’s pretty emotional, obviously,” said MacEwan, who pointed upward after the win, his third of the day, a nod to his late father, Malcolm, who died last January.
“This is what this team has been aiming for, for a number of years now. We knew we had to just stick to our game. I think sometimes, when you play big teams, juggernaut kind of teams, you try and do a little too much.”
Past experience told MacEwan, lead Lee Toner, second Luc Ouimet, third Dustin Montpelllier and alternate Olivier Bonin-Ducharme to stay within themselves and see what happens.
Not once in the match did Team MacEwan get ahead of themselves.
They opened with a steal of two in the first end, Epping giving up the lead for just the second time all week, a four-win run that earned them a beeline to the final.
It was just another end, with a good result, MacEwan said.
“It really didn’t get us super excited. It was obviously a great start, but we knew they were a world-class team. They were going to be fighting back the entire game,” MacEwan said.
Epping rebounded in the second, making a hit and roll for a pair to even the match 2-2. MacEwan found trouble in the third and, after seemingly escaping, made a draw to the button for one, reluctantly jumping in front 3-2.
Epping, his team including lead Ian McMillan of Dryden, and brothers Tanner and Jacob Horgan of Sudbury, needed to make a delicate tap in the fourth to avoid another steal, and then the two teams blanked the next three ends.
In the eighth, MacEwan was left with a tricky hit-and-spill for a fourth straight blank end, but his stone hung around the rings and he ceded hammer back to Epping, up 4-3. Epping, who calls Toronto home, was left with a draw to the 12-foot for two in the ninth and made no mistake, taking a 5-4 lead, his first of the night.
However, a second straight trip to the Brier, this time in St. John’s, Nfld., was not in the cards.
“It’s unbelievable,” Montepellier said. “We’ve been so close so many times. We’ve made a lot of finals, a lot of semifinals, and to finally cross the finish line feels great.”
The moment wasn’t lost on the veteran third.
“I knew we were going to the Brier, with an open draw to the rings. But it was just get through the motions and make this draw.”
The Brier begins on Feb. 27. It will be the third appearance for Toner and Ouimet, who played on Mike Jakubo's winning teams in 2005 and 2009.