SUMMERSIDE – Glenn Howard stole a four-ender from Halifax's Jamie Murphy in the fourth end Wednesday night to a 3-0 record in Pool A at the 2017 Home Hardware Road to the Roar Pre-Trials curling competition at Eastlink Arena.
Howard, whose team curls out of St. George’s Golf and Curling Club in Ontario, won the game 7-5.Murphy slips to 2-2 in the standings in the seven-team "A" Pool.
The match-up between the top two teams in the "B" pool took a little longer to decide, but Edmonton's Charley Thomas remained perfect at 3-0 following a 10-9 extra-end victory over Quebec's Jean-Michel Menard. Thomas tied the game with hammer with a deuce in the tenth and stole the extra end. The outcome was strangely familiar for Menard who started Wednesday at 2-0. In the noon draw Menard was sporting a three-point lead on Pat Simmons from Winnipeg after nine ends, but Simmons rallied to tie and then won the game with an extra-end steal.
The top three teams from both Pool A and Pool B will advance to the playoffs, which start on Saturday.
The men’s No. 1 seed, John Morris, from Vernon, B.C., was knocked out of the ranks of the undefeated by the ninth-seeded Colton Flasch from Saskatoon in Wednesday’s noon-hour draw.
Flasch rode clutch draws to the button and four-foot in the eighth and 10th ends to an 8-7 victory. It was his first of two wins on Wednesday.
He took a 5-1 lead after three ends and downed a Regina team skipped by Islander Adam Casey 7-4 in the evening draw to even his record at 2-2. Casey slides to 1-2. Morris takes a 2-1 record into Thursday’s 4 p.m. game against Casey.
Winnipeg’s Jason Gunnlaugson scored a 6-5 victory over Sarnia’ Mark Bice (0-4) to move into a tie with Morris at 2-1. Gunnlaugson plays Howard at 4 p.m. Thursday.
