Sault Ste. Marie’s Brad Jacobs and his team representing northern Ontario from the Community First Curling Centre locally is 5-1 at the 2018 Tim Hortons Brier in Regina after four days.
The Jacobs rink, which includes third Ryan Fry, second E.J. Harnden, and lead Ryan Harnden split a pair of games on Tuesday and will wrap up round robin action on Wednesday afternoon.
Jacobs picked up a 7-3 win over Quebec’s Mike Fournier in Tuesday’s evening draw at the nine-day event.
Tied at two through four ends, Jacobs broke the game open with three in the fifth and sealed the victory with one in the eighth and a steal of one in the ninth end.
Jacobs opened the day with an 8-4 loss in eight ends to Steve Laycock of Saskatchewan in the morning draw.
After blanking the opening end, Laycock jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second end before adding three more in the fifth to take a 7-2 lead at the time.
Ryan Harnden did not play against Saskatchewan due to illness. Alternate Tanner Horgan took Harnden’s place.
Team Jacobs sits tied for top spot in Pool B with Ontario’s John Epping ahead of Wednesday’s round robin finale against Manitoba’s Reid Carruthers..
The 2018 tournament is the first under a new format, which includes 16 teams divided into two pools of eight teams each.
The round robin wraps up on Wednesday before the top four teams in each pool advance to the championship round. That will then cut down the field again to the four teams that will compete in the page playoff on the weekend.