With two days remaining in round robin action at the 2022 Tim Hortons Brier, Brad Jacobs and his team representing Northern Ontario have inched closer to a playoff spot in the 10-day, 18-team event.
The Jacobs rink, which includes third Marc Kennedy, second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden, and alternate Jordan Chandler, picked up a pair of wins on Tuesday to move to 5-1.
Tuesday saw the Jacobs rink pick up an 8-3 win over Jamie Koe of the Northwest Territories in the morning draw before beating Peter Mackey of Nunavut 12-2 in the evening draw,
In the opening game of the day, Jacobs took the lead through two ends en route to the win over Koe.
Facing a pair with the hammer in the second end, Jacobs made a tough draw for one to take the lead.
With Jacobs lying two, Koe looked to clear both Jacobs rocks to score a pair of his own, but only removed one. The steal of on gave Jacobs a 2-0 lead through threw ends.
Koe got on the board in the fourth end as he picked up one to cut the Northern Ontario lead in half.
In the fifth end, Jacobs opened up the score with a nose-hit to score four and take a 6-1 lead.
The teams traded singles in the sixth and seventh ends to give Jacobs a 7-2 lead.
After a single by Koe in the eighth end, Jacobs capped off the scoring with a single in the ninth end.
Against Mackey, Jacobs jumped out to a big lead early on by scoring four in the opening end with the hammer before stealing three in the second end.
Mackey got on the board with a single in the third end, but Jacobs would take an 11-1 lead by scoring four more in the fourth end.
After Mackey put up a single in the fifth end, Jacobs blanked the sixth end before scoring one in the seventh end.
Mackey blanked the following end before the teams shook hands after eight ends.
Jacobs returns to action on Wednesday afternoon with a game against Manitoba’s Mike McEwen at 3:30 p.m. Sault time.
The Jacobs rink will conclude round robin action on Thursday night against Nova Scotia’s Paul Flemming at 8:30 p.m. Sault time.
After the conclusion of the round robin, the top three teams in each of the nine-team pools advance to the expanded playoff format.
The second- and third-place teams in each pool meet Friday afternoon with the winners facing the top teams in the evening draw.
The page playoff games are set for March 12 with semifinal and final action set for the following day.