Team Glenn Howard moved to 2-0 on Sunday afternoon at the 2021 Tim Hortons Brier in Calgary.
The Howard rink, which includes third Scott Howard, second David Mathers, lead Tim March, and alternate Wayne Middaugh, picked up a 12-2 win over Team Yukon, skipped by Dustin Mikkelsen in eight ends.
Team Howard jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the opening end with the hammer and proceeded to increase the lead to 6-0 thanks to a steal of two in the third and one more in the fourth.
After Mikkelsen got on the board with a single in the fifth end, Team Howard scored four more in the sixth before stealing two more in the eighth.
The loss dropped Mikkelsen to 0-3 in the 10-day event.
Middaugh skipped the opener for Team Howard and saw much of the action at skip Sunday, though Howard got into his first action of the event Sunday against Mikkelsen.
Howard was injured prior to the tournament, leading to Middaugh skipping the opener on Saturday.
“It was really weird to just sort of jump into the hack and not go through the whole process that you do leading up to and going into the Brier,” Howard said in media availability courtesy Curling Canada.
Howard spoke of his excitement to get into some action, albeit limited, at the tournament.
“They really feel good,” Howard said. “The problem with me is I’m just not ready. I’ve thrown probably 50 rocks in three months. I wasn’t able to work out. I wasn’t able to prepare. I was hurt pretty bad. I threw a few rocks with the boys last week to know that I could. That just made me happy that, just in case, god forbid anything happened, I can go in and play.”
Through a pair of games, there’s a lot to be happy with for the Howard rink.
“The boys have played very well,” Middaugh said of the opening two games. “With Glenn’s leadership, we prepared very well. With all of the Brier experience between us, we knew what to expect and we knew what was going to happen, right from practice time on Thursday right into today. Now we’ve hopefully learned a few things and we can keep playing at a good level.
Team Howard is set to return to action on Monday against Team Alberta, skipped by Brendan Bottcher.
The Bottcher rink will take a 2-1 record into the game after an extra end win over Team New Brunswick, skipped by James Grattan.
Other games in Pool A on Sunday saw Team Northern Ontario, skipped by Brad Jacobs, beat Team Northwest Territories, skipped by Gregory Skauge 7-5 and Mike McEwen’s Wild Card team beat Team British Columbia, skipped by Steve Laycock, 10-7.
