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Howard's getting things done
Russ Howard scored a convincing 8-2 win over Scott Patterson of Northern Ontario to stay in the hunt for a playoff spot.
In other Monday morning games, Alberta's Ken Hunka beat Robert Campbell of P.E.I 10-5; B.C.'s Bert Gretzinger took a 7-4 decision over Orest Peech of the Territories and Nova Scotia's Peter Flemming edged Ontario's Rich Moffat 6-5 in an extra end.
"That's the best game I've seen the guys play all year,'' said Howard, a golf pro from Moncton who's representing New Brunswick.
Howard's gambling, high-stakes style of game has produced 31 points in his first four starts, just under eight points a game.
"It was a heck of a turnaround from that first game,'' said Howard, winner of three straight."It was a heck of a turnaround from that first game. I was the only guy who was a little upset. Credit to the team. They hung in there and that's the beauty of those guys.''
Howard said he's been to enough Briers to know he's facing the teeth of his schedule later this week. He's hoping three losses will be good enough to keep his team in the hunt for a playoff spot.r/"Later in the week we have Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba all in a row,'' said' Howard. "You could play well and lose all three of those games.''
Hunka also stayed in the hunt. He sealed his win by scoring a tricky takeout for five in the eighth end.
"I struggled a bit early on,'' said Hunka, 3-1, who bounced back off his Sunday night loss to Howard. "I still haven't found real good draw weight. We played a real good eighth end. The boys made some real good shots. I was fortunate enough to have a shot for five with my last one.''r/Hunka was pleased to bounce back off a losing effort.
"We're not a real good morning team,'' said\'10Hunka. "We'd better be prepared to play, because we have two more of those this week. I don't mind playing in the morning, but the young guys like to sleep in. You don't get to sleep in when you play at 8:30.
"We bounced back pretty good, I thought.''
Flemming joins Howard and Hunka at 3-1, right behind Quebec's 3-0 Guy Hemmings, who had the bye.
"We were hoping at the end of the day we'd be 4-1 or 3-2 after playing all these tough teams,'' said Flemming. "If we got three or four wins, we'd be happy.''