Earlier this season, Mike McEwen lost faith in himself.
“We had lots of chances to win,” the four-time Brier champion skip said. “We didn’t play well. We let him hang around and they made us pay.”“I have not been in a game like that in some time,” he said. “Everything Kevin did, we matched and back and forth the entire game. That was a special playoff game. There are always great playoff games but that ranks up there as one of the most entertaining I’ve ever been a part of.
Every winning Brier team needs some little things to go right for them along the way. It doesn’t hurt to have the fans at your back, too. “It’s been amazing,” McEwen said. “This is my eighth Brier. Every Ontario Brier I played in has been tremendous — whether I’ve been Manitoba or a Wild Card team. It’s even better when I’m wearing the black and red. The crowd has been so supportive. They have been cheering everybody on and there has been a lot to cheer for.
“This year, we had team meetings in pickup trucks — two in the front, two back — with some strong words said,” Hodgson said. “To get to this point where we felt like we were a functional team working together is a testament to how much everybody cares about each other. That’s what it was at the end for me.”
Before leaving the ice, Hodgson received a rousing ovation. Teammate Darren Moulding, his longtime friend, went over and raised Hodgson’s arm in a celebratory salute.“He didn’t tell me he was going to do anything like that. Unexpected and very special. We were in a bad spot early in the game and it’s tough to come back. A lot of teams, even myself in the past, would’ve mailed it in, but we didn’t do that. We played to the last rock.
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