Howard falls to Dunstone on day two of Brier

Team Ontario, represented by Glenn Howard and his team from the Penetanguishene Curling Club, fell to 0-2 on Saturday at the 2022 Tim Hortons Brier, which opened this weekend in Lethbridge, Alta.

The Howard rink, which includes third Scott Howard, second David Mathers, and lead Tim March, dropped a narrow 7-6 decision to Matt Dunstone of the Highland Curling Club in Regina, Sask. Saturday night in the third draw of the 10-day event.

Dunstone is one of three wild card entries in the 18-team field.

After Howard opened the scoring with a single in the second end with the hammer, the teams proceeded to trade leads in the following three ends.

Dunstone scored a pair in the third end to go up 2-1 only to see Howard retake the lead in the fourth end with a pair of his own.

Dunstone would take a 6-3 lead after scoring a pair in the fifth and stealing two more in the sixth.

The lead wasn’t safe though as Howard scored a pair in the seventh end to pull to within one and tied the game with a steal of one more in the eighth end.

To maintain the hammer heading into the 10th, Dunstone blanked the ninth end before picking up a single and the victory in the final end.

The Howard rink returns to action on Sunday afternoon in the lone Pool A draw of the day.

Howard will face Alberta’s Kevin Koe at 3:30 p.m. Midland time.

Koe enters the game at 2-0 after wins over Saskatchewan’s Colton Flasch and Newfoundland and Labrador’s Nathan Young.

The 18-team field is divided into two pools of nine teams each.

After seven days of round robin action, the top three teams in each pool advance in an expanded playoff format.

The second- and third-place teams in each pool will meet in a page playoff qualifier with the winners of those games facing the top seeded teams from each pool.

The page playoff games are set for March 12 with semifinal and final action set for the following day.