Mike McEwen defeated Mark Kean 8-2 in a battle of young skips in the opening draw of the BDO Canadian Open here on Wednesday night.

McEwen, the runaway money leader on the World Curling Tour this season, scored three in the opening end and never looked back, closing it out with consecutive steals in the fifth and sixth ends that prompted Kean to concede.

In the other opening games, Brad Jacobs upset Kevin Martin 4-3, Jeff Stoughton clipped Rob Fowler 6-5, Kevin Koe held on to beat Jean-Michel Menard 5-4, and Glenn Howard handled Steve Laycock 7-1 in six ends.

This opening draw was the first to be played under the new "five-rock" rule, which is being introduced at this Grand Slam tournament. In an effort to generate more offence, teams are forbidden from removing an opposing stone from the free guard zone until the sixth stone of each end.

McEwen, who's not sure yet whether he likes the new rule, said it kept the game interesting even after he built a big early lead because there were more rocks in play.

"It was a little bit scary. I had a headache out there and we're up five," he said with a chuckle.

McEwen's convincing victory was a confidence-builder for the 31-year-old Winnipegger, who's coming off a rare week off from competition to recharge his team's batteries after a busy start to the season.

"I feel pretty good," he said. "I'm throwing it better now that we had the layoff and I had some time to practice."

Kean, who at 23 is the youngest skip at this tournament, is still looking for his first win of the Grand Slam season. He went 0-5 at the season-opening GP Car and Home World Cup of Curling, where he dropped three games by a single point.

The Torontonian fell behind 4-0 in the second when he failed to hold his shooter and gave up a steal of one.

"Tough one out there," said Kean. "Tough getting used to the ice. It's so swingy.

"We've been to two Grand Slams, but we still feel like rookies, I guess."