Brier playoffs underway today with Brad Jacobs, E.J. and Ryan Harnden all fighting for top curling prize

With the playoff round at the Brier set to begin this afternoon in Regina, Sask., it will have a significant local flavour.

Of the six teams in still in the hunt to capture the Montana’s Brier title, a whopping three have hometown Sault players on them.

Manitoba’s Team Carruthers is skipped by Brad Jacobs while Team Canada, skipped by Brad Gushue, features E.J. Harnden at second and a second Manitoba-based rink, skipped by Matt Dunstone, features Ryan Harnden at lead.

In addition to the trio being from the Sault, the Harndens are brothers and Jacobs is their cousin.

The trio were previously members of a rink skipped by Jacobs that included third Marc Kennedy.

Kennedy is currently playing third for Alberta’s Team Bottcher, who is also still in the playoff hunt.

The Carruthers and Gushue rinks are slated to meet each other today at 2 p.m. with the winner earning a spot in the 1/2 Page Playoff game on Saturday evening.

The loser of the game will play this evening in one of the 3 vs. 4 games against either the Dunstone rink or Jamie Koe’s Northwest Territories-based team at 8 p.m.

The winner of those games will advance to the Page Playoff 3/4 game on Saturday afternoon while the loser will be eliminated from the tournament.

The tournament features 18 teams in the round robin separated into two nine-team pools.

Team Carruthers finished first in Pool A with a 7-1 record in round robin play while the Gushue rink overcame a slow start to the event and finished second in Pool B with a 6-2 record.

The other 1 vs. 2 game this afternoon will see the Bottcher rink, who finished second in Pool A with a 6-2 record, take on Mike McEwen’s Saskatchewan-based rink, who finished round robin play with a 7-1 record and took top spot in Pool B.

Team Dunstone also went 6-2 and finished third in Pool A while the Koe rink was third in Pool B, also with a 6-2 record.

Team Northern Ontario, skipped by Thunder Bay’s Trevor Bonot, finished just outside the playoff picture in Pool A, going 5-3 in round robin play and finishing fourth.

The semi-final game for the tournament is Sunday afternoon with the championship game slated for Sunday evening.