Ice conditions 'fantastic' for Jacobs in win

If the ice conditions remain the same at the 2017 Tim Hortons Brier, Brad Jacobs and his team from the Community First Curling Centre in Sault Ste. Marie will be happy.

Jacobs commended the ice conditions following a 7-2 win over Ontario’s Glenn Howard on Monday night to improve to 4-1 at the nine-day event in St. John’s, Nfld.

“Hopefully the ice conditions stay close to what it was like tonight,” Jacobs said. “We thought it was fantastic.”

Team Jacobs, which includes third Ryan Fry, second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden, picked up a pair of wins Monday, beating Jamie Koe of the Northwest Territories 9-5 in the afternoon draw.

Jacobs called the win over Howard “by far our best team game. We contribute that to getting a great handle on the ice.”

Jacobs would say the team wasn’t as sharp in the win over Koe earlier in the day.

“It was a little sloppy earlier (in the win over Koe),” Jacobs said. “We took advantage of every opportunity that was given to us. We got a really lucky break when we got a three-point end in the eighth end.”

The Jacobs rink sits in second overall through three days of action while Manitoba’s Mike McEwen remains the lone unbeaten team at the tournament with a 4-0 record. Brad Gushue of Newfoundland and Labrador is in a tie with Team Canada’s Kevin Koe for third. Both rinks have 3-1 records.

The top four teams in the standings advance to the page playoff on the weekend.

Team Jacobs returns to action in draw 9 on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. eastern time against Nova Scotia’s Jamie Murphy, who is 2-2 through three days. Murphy will face Jacobs after having faced Kevin Koe in Tuesday’s morning draw.

Jacobs will then wrap up the day against Gushue at 6:30 p.m. eastern time.