The 2018 Tim Hortons Brier opened on Saturday in Regina, Sask, and Sault Ste. Marie’s Brad Jacobs is off to a 1-0 start.
The Jacobs rink, representing northern Ontario at the nine-day event, picked up a 4-3 win over Ontario’s John Epping (Toronto).
It was a game that saw both teams attempting to learn the ice at the Brandt Centre.
“We were really just happy to go out there and get the first win,” Jacobs said in a Curling Canada story. “I just like the way we hung in there and nobody got too frustrated with the things that were going on. Both teams had their misses because it’s so early in the event. I think everyone’s going to get sharper as the week goes along here, but despite some of the misses and some of the moments where we could have probably let that get to us we kept our cool, kept plugging away trying to make the next one.”
The game was one that Epping felt the Toronto-based team could have taken control of early on.
“We should have won that one,” said Epping. “We had chances early to get control. They had chances too and they didn’t capitalize. It just seemed like both teams had chances and didn’t put the other team away. Brad made a good one on his first one in the last end or we probably steal the game.
“The ice is great, you’ve just got to settle in and learn what it’s doing. It’s a tough one when you have a chance to win, that’s a tough one out there. When you get a chance to beat those guys you need to.”
The Jacobs rink – which includes third Ryan Fry, second E.J. Harnden, and lead Ryan Harnden – will return to action on Sunday with a pair of games. The team will face David St. Louis of the Iqaluit Curling Club in Nunavut at 10 a.m. before facing Eddie McKenzie of the Charlottetown Curling Complex in P.E.I.
The 2018 event is the first under the new Brier format.
The event now features 16 teams, one each from all of the provinces and territories, Team Canada and the final team being determined by a play-in game that includes the top two teams on the CTRS that did not win their regional playdown.
Teams have been split into two pools of eight teams each and play a round robin within their pool. The top four teams in each pool then advance to a championship round that will further narrow the field to the four teams that will compete in the page playoff next weekend.