By Canadian Press

Bonot moves into first place in Pool A with win over Howard at Brier

Mar 5, 2024 | 11:32 AM

REGINA — Trevor Bonot’s Northern Ontario rink continued its impressive run at the Canadian men’s curling championship with a 10-6 win over Ontario’s Scott Howard in Tuesday’s early draw.

Howard scored two in the eighth end to cut Bonot’s lead to 7-6, but the skip out of Thunder Bay responded with three in the ninth and prompted Howard to concede.

Bonot, coming off an upset of top-ranked Brendan Bottcher on Monday, improved to 4-1 and took control of first place in Pool A after Manitoba’s Reid Carruthers was dealt his first loss at the Montana’s Brier.

British Columbia’s Catlin Schneider (3-2) scored one in the 10th in a 9-8 win over Carruthers (3-1).

In other Draw 10 scores, Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone improved to 3-1 with a 7-6 win over New Brunswick’s James Grattan (0-4). Dunstone and Carruthers were in a three-way tie for second with Alberta’s Bottcher, who didn’t play in the morning.

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Bottcher and Dunstone were set to face off in Wednesday’s late draw.

A game between Newfoundland and Labrador’s Andrew Symonds and Yukon’s Thomas Scoffin was interrupted by a leak in the Brandt Centre over their ice sheet.

A Pool B draw was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon followed by another Pool A draw in the evening.

The top three teams in each pool of nine Thursday advance to Friday’s six-team playoff round, from which Saturday’s four Page playoff teams emerge.

Tiebreaker games have been eliminated from the format. Head-to-head results followed by cumulative scores in the draw-the-button that precedes each game is the tiebreaking formula.

Three losses is considered the playoff danger zone, although a team made it into the Canadian women’s championship with four losses.

Sunday’s winner will represent Canada at the world championship March 30 to April 7 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland and return to the 2025 Montana’s Brier in Kelowna, B.C., as defending champion.

The victor also gains an Olympic trials berth in 2025 pending a top-six result at the world championship.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 5, 2024.

The Canadian Press