It was a full 24 hours after the NOCA (Northern Ontario Curling Association) men's final and Sandy MacEwan was still on Cloud Nine.
The resume that MacEwan and his team of Dustin Montpellier, Olivier Bonin-Ducharme, Luc Ouimet and Lee Toner have compiled over the years is a more than solid one, highlighted by a few runs to the northern finals.
But in earning the first trip to the Montana's Brier for MacEwan, Montpellier and Bonin-Ducharme, this newly-formed quintet (the latter was added to the lineup for the 2025-2026) not only toppled the eighth-ranked team in the world to do so, but managed the feat after scrambling their way to the playoffs as the "C" qualifier - and winning four straight games in a stretch of some 24 hours, three of those victories coming by a single point.
The wild ride that culminated with a 6-5 triumph over the John Epping rink (Jake Horgan, Tanner Horgan, Ian MacMillan) will be one to remember for a good, long while, even as Team MacEwan prepares to head off to Newfoundland at the end of February, donning the colours of Northern Ontario at the national curling championships.
"In playing nine games like that, you're tired and exhausted, but in some ways, it doesn't give you enough time to get inside your own head," said MacEwan, who assembled a six-day stretch as follows: 7-4 win vs Evan Robert; 8-4 win vs Chris Glibota; 6-4 loss to Trevor Bonot; 6-5 win vs Riley Winters; 8-7 loss to Brian Adams Jr; 5-4 win vs Tyler Stewart; 9-5 win vs Adams Jr; 9-8 win vs Bonot; 6-5 win vs Epping.
By contrast, Team Epping travelled the far more direct route to the final, sweeping aside J.C Beecroft (11-1), Kurtis Byrd (7-2), Brian Adams Jr (8-2) and Trevor Bonot (9-4) before having to wait a full 48 hours to the face the MacEwan crew representing the NCUCC (Northern Credit Union Community Centre - Sudbury).
You are hopefully beginning to get a feel why this is such a big deal for this highly-affable team.
"There is definitely something to be said for taking a bit of a longer route in the sense that it allows you to adjust to potentially changing ice conditions, it allows you to continue to gel as a team, it allows you to figure out the rocks," said MacEwan.
"It just allows you to get more familiar with everything."
It is extremely unlikely that a run of seven victories in nine games that featured a total point differential of just +9 has ever before led to an NOCA provincial banner, as MacEwan added even more statistical evidence to his overall assessment of the week that was spent at the North Bay Granite Club.
"This was one of the toughest provincials we have played in, from start to finish, given the fact that every single game was close," said MacEwan. "We never scored more than two points in an end, all week, which is crazy."
"We were making it tough on teams and they were making it tough on us - and that was kind of cool."
This will be the third trip to the Brier for both Luc Ouimet and Lee Toner, members of the Mike Jakubo entries that captured the northern Tankard in 2005 and 2009.
Meanwhile, Team Scharf (formerly McCarville) made it eight NOCA women's championships with all four members of their current team in the lineup, with most of this foursome into double digit visits to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts after running the table in North Bay.
Though some of the early victories were close for the Fort William Curling Club squad of Krista Scharf, Kendra Lilly, Ashley Sippala and Sarah Potts, the perennial powerhouse ultimately posted a record of 6-0 in round robin play before outscoring clubmate Robyn Despins and company 9-7 in the gold medal game.
Team Despins (3-3) booked their tickets to the final after sliding past the Krysta Burns NCUCC quartet (4-2) 7-5 in the Sunday morning semi-final, with the 2026 Scotties now set to take place from January 23rd to February 1st in Mississauga.
