Glenn Howard and his team from the Penetanguishene Curling Club opened the 2022 Tim Hortons Brier on Friday night.
The team, which made headlines one year ago while going on a tremendous run at the 2021 event, opened this year’s tournament with a 5-4 loss to Team Canada, skipped by Brendan Bottcher on Friday at the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge, Alta.
Bottcher scored a pair in the 10th end to pick up the win.
The Howard rink, which includes third Scott Howard, second David Mathers, lead Tim March, and alternate Adam Spencer, got on the board first scoring a single with the hammer after blanking the opening end.
Bottcher took the lead with a pair in the third and, after Howard blanked the fourth, extended the lead to 3-1 with a steal of one in the fifth end.
Howard would tie the game with a pair of his own in the sixth before taking the lead in the ninth with a steal of one.
The Howard rink returns to action on Saturday night against Matt Dunstone, one of three wild card rinks in the 18-team field.
The 18-team field is split into two pools of nine teams, who will play an eight-game round robin schedule that will wrap up on March 10.
The following day, the top three teams in each pool will play in an expanded playoff that will see the second- and third-place teams meet in a page playoff qualifier. The winners of those games will face the top seeded teams from each pool later in the day.
The winners of the evening games will play in the 1v2 page playoff game on March 12 with the remaining two teams playing in the 3v4 game.
The winner of the 1v2 game will advance directly to the final with the loser of that game facing the winner of the 3v4 game to determine the other finalist.
The tournament final is scheduled for March 13 at 8 p.m. Ontario time.
