 Saskatchewan's Mike McEwen (Photo: Grand Slam of Curling) is competing in the PointsBet Invitational in Calgary, Alberta, with his sights set on defending his title. By Connor Simms, #8 World-Ranked Mike McEwen, with Colton Flasch at third, Kevin Marsh and Daniel Marsh on the front end, have eyes set on defending the PointsBet title with a new format. In previous years, the PointsBet Invitational has been a single knockout event, meaning if you lose, you would be eliminated. This season, the PointBet Invitational is introducing a new format. With the Olympic year and Trials approaching, the seven pre-qualified teams will attend the PointsBet Invitational. The next team in is the next best CTRS team (Manitoba's Jordon McDonald). Following that, Canada's NextGen U27 qualifier (Ontario's Sam Mooibroek) qualified. The final team is the reigning Canadian Junior Champion (Nova Scotia's Calan MacIsaac). The field was reduced to ten teams this year, down from sixteen in previous years. The ten teams will be split into two groups of five, with each team playing every other team in their group once. The top two teams from each group will then advance to the championship game. The event also introduced a new payout structure for these teams. Previously, there was a payout per game won, depending on the round. This season, each team will earn $2,500 per round-robin victory. The winners of the men's and women's events will each receive $35,000, while the runners-up will get $15,000. Mike McEwen is the defending champion on the men's side, defeating Newfoundland and Labrador's Brad Gushue in the final last season. McEwen most recently competed in the AMJ Masters. They finished with a 2-2 record, ultimately losing the tiebreaker to Alberta's Brad Jacobs. In their opening game, they will face Mooibroek on Wednesday at 6:30 pm Mountain Time (MT). Their next game will be against McDonald at 6:30 pm MT on Thursday. On Friday, they will play home province rival Rylan Kleiter at 1:30 pm MT. They will wrap up the round robin on Saturday at 1:30 pm MT against Manitoba's Matt Dunstone. Catch games live on TSN. Also, catch live score updates on the CurlingZone website. |
A five at the opening end of their first-ever match together in a major international competition sent Katie McMillan and Angus Bryce on their way to a dominant victory over the USA at the ACE & Company World Mixed Doubles Championships in Geneva.
