Homan repeats, McEwen earns big payday in PointsBet Invitational curling

CALGARY — Mike McEwen earned a measure of revenge and Rachel Homan was a repeat winner in curling's PointsBet Invitational on Sunday.

McEwen beat Brad Gushue 8-3 in a rematch of the Canadian men's championship final in March, when Gushue prevailed to win his sixth Brier.

Homan defeated Kayla Skrlik 8-3 in the women's final in Calgary's WinSport Arena, where Homan also won a national women's title in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts seven months earlier.

"I'm going to hope for more events to come back here," Homan said.

McEwen, third Colton Flasch, second Kevin Marsh and lead Dan Marsh out of Saskatoon's Nutana Curling Club won all four of their games in the single-knockout tournament to collect $50,000 in prize money.

"That's the biggest for me and probably biggest for the team, for the guys, for a tour cheque," McEwen said. "It's a cool event to win."

Homan, vice Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes from the Ottawa Curling Club improved to 12-0 to start this season after claiming $50,000 a second straight year.

"This event is awesome. It's been great to us in the last couple years," Homan said. "Team played really well and really proud of playing a really solid game out there."

McEwen's foursome has been on the ice since August. The PointsBet was their fourth event to start this season and third straight win in September.

Gushue's team doesn't yet have ice in St. John's, N.L., and has played one event.

McEwen believes his team is closer to midseason form than Gushue or Brad Jacobs, who McEwen ousted in the semifinal.

"We've really sharpened our skills in September, but playing the two Brads, Brad Jacobs and Brad Gushue, any time you get a little notch in the season, head to head, you've got to take that," McEwen said.

"I hope there's many more to come, but yeah, those teams are going to go to work. This is early. We're playing like we're midseason and they're going to be hungry to come after us now."

McEwen scored four in the first end and three in the sixth before a steal of one in the seventh. Gushue shook hands after eight.

"I didn't feel comfortable putting the broom down for any of the shots and it looked like Mike and his team were completely dialed in," Gushue said. "It was a tough game for us.

"We're coming to these events pretty fresh trying to work out technical flaws from being off all summer, so I can't be too hard on us. We got to the final, but it was not a stellar week of play by us by any means."

The PointsBet's hook is the single knockout format and the chance of a big upset with under-25, university, college, junior and club champions in the field alongside the top teams in Canada.

Jordan McDonald's 13th-seeded men's team that won last month's national under-25 championship toppled No. 4 Matt Dunstone and No. 5 Kevin Koe before taking Gushue the distance in the semifinal.

But it was Canadian junior women's champion Allyson MacNutt producing the shock of the tournament by ousting four-time Canadian champion Kerri Einarson in the round of 16.

"It makes you play under pressure right away," Wilkes said. "That's never a bad thing, having to play under pressure."

Each of the 32 teams in the field received $5,000 to defray travel costs. A quarterfinal victory was worth $3,000, a semifinal $12,000 and the final $24,000.

Reigning women's world champion Homan stole single points in the second and third ends, and stole another three in the seventh Sunday. Calgary's Skrlik shook hands after eight ends.

"I'd like to take back some of my shots in the earlier ends and rethrow them and I think it would have been a much closer game, but we got down on Rachel a little bit early, and it's really hard to battle back against that team," said the 27-year-old Skrlik.

"This is the farthest we've gone into this event, and we're the number 10 seed. It surpassed all of our expectations. We've played Rachel twice now this season, which is sort of a lot considering it's September.

"We know if we're lining up against Rachel we're doing something right."

The fourth edition of the PointsBet returns to Calgary in 2025 from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5 at WinSport Arena.

Homan, Skrlik, McEwan and Gushue were among several teams heading to the first Grand Slam of the season, the HearingLife Tour Challenge, starting Tuesday in Charlottetown.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2024.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press