Northern Ontario falls to 1-2 at the Brier

NEWS RELEASE

CANADIAN CURLING ASSOCIATION

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Saskatchewan staying with the lead pack Saskatchewan's Pat Simmons is giving his province something to cheer about at the Tim Hortons Brier Canadian men's curling championship in Winnipeg.

Simmons and his team from the Davidson Curling Club — third Jeff Sharp, second Gerry Adam and lead Steve Laycock — improved to 3-0, part of a four-way tie for the lead, on Sunday night with an 8-4 win over Bob Ursel of B.C.

It's the first time a Saskatchewan team has opened the Brier with three straight victories since Jim Packet did it in 1989.

"So far, so good," said Simmons, who's tied for the lead at 3-0 with Kevin Martin of Alberta, Kerry Burtnyk of Manitoba and Glenn Howard of Ontario, who all had byes. "I would officially call it a pretty good start now. It looked like we played a little bit better tonight, and hopefully we keep going in the right direction."

B.C. remained winless at 0-3 after the loss.

Newfoundland/Labrador's Brad Gushue, meanwhile, got into the win column after a 7-5 win over Eric Harnden of Northern Ontario. Gushue's St. John's team recorded a crucial steal of one in the seventh end, and put the game away with a deuce in the ninth end. Both teams are at 1-2.

In other Draw 5 play, New Brunswick's James Grattan picked up his first win of the Brier, scoring a 9-4 victory over Chad Cowan of the Yukon/Northwest Territories. The result left both teams with a 1-2 record.

And in the other game, Quebec's Jean-Michel Menard stole five in the first end, three more in the second and added four in the fourth in a 13-2 rout of Nova Scotia's Brian Rafuse. Both teams moved to 1-2.

P.E.I.'s Peter Gallant (0-3) also had a bye in Draw 5.

Play at the the Tim Hortons Brier resumes Monday, with games scheduled for 9:30 a.m., 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. (all times Eastern; curltv.com will show the morning draw, while the latter two draws will be on TSN. ***********************************************************