It’s a good thing Howard’s got Hart

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This article was published 13/03/2010 (5911 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HALIFAX — Glenn Howard and his rink paraded into the Page 1 vs. 2 playoff game of the Tim Hortons Brier on Friday night sporting Maritime fisherman sou’westers in hopes of winning over the 6,263 fans at the Halifax Metro Centre.

The skip then went out and played the first half of the game like he had a patch over one eye before salvaging an 8-6 comeback win over fiery young Northern Ontario skip Brad Jacobs, who continues to write an impressive tale representing a region starving for a winner.

How bad was it for Howard over the first five ends? The 12-time Brier participant was struggling at 68 per cent, compared to Jacobs’s 90, and Howard couldn’t even blame it on the man playing in front of him, third Richard Hart, who was at 88 per cent at the midway mark, easily out-curling Jacobs’s third E.J. Harnden at 68 per cent.

The veteran Ontario skip, who went through the round-robin undefeated at 11-0, finally got it going in the eighth end, taking advantage of a Harnden miss, followed by a Jacobs miss to hit for three and grab a 6-5 lead.

“Congratulations has to go to my team, they just made every shot for me. I missed a few early and got a little bit down on myself. They kept picking me up, kept making great shots,” said Howard, who made two uncharacteristic misses in the third end to give up three and a 3-2 lead to Jacobs.

Howard was then light on a draw in the fourth end to give up a steal to fall behind 4-2 and was forced into taking one when he missed an open hit for two in five. Doubt suddenly filled the arena.

“The one in five I definitely did not throw well. I talked myself into it being straight, threw it pretty good, but light. It rolled out and I felt, ‘Oh my God, I’ve let the guys down.’ I hate that, right. You hate to let them down. I hadn’t done it all week, but what do you do? You miss a shot, you regroup,” he said.

“The best thing about my guys is they come back and make a ton of shots for me and it puts confidence in me for the rest of the game.”

Howard finished the night at 79 per cent compared to Jacobs’s 73, and Team Ontario out-curled its northern counterparts 89 to 81 per cent.

“When you say struggle, it’s funny with a guy like Glenn Howard because it’s like two or three shots,” said Hart. “It’s the whole, ‘The sky is falling’ thing because Glenn missed three shots in five ends. You take it with a grain of salt and say, ‘Oh yeah, so Glenn is curling like the other skip. We better do something special.’ “

It was more taking advantage of Jacobs’s slip-ups, although Hart made an incredible through the port shot in six to temporarily lay three. It was followed down by Harnden, who moved a pair out of the four foot, but Jacobs did have to settle for one.

Up until the critical eighth end it was Jacobs who was raining down on Howard’s parade, sou’wester or not. The 24-year-old — the youngest skip here and first to lead Northern Ontario into the Brier playoffs in 17 years — gave Howard fits despite allowing a deuce in the second end. He did tie it back up at 6-6 in the ninth after he missed a delicate draw that fell just shy of the button to count a second point. He just couldn’t hold off Howard.

“It definitely feels like it slipped away a little bit,” Jacobs said. “But hey, that’s why you get yourself in the 1-2 game, so you get two cracks at it.”

Ontario now advances to Sunday night’s final, while Jacobs attempts to play his way back in through the semifinal, awaiting the winner of today’s Page 3 vs. 4 matchup between Alberta’s Kevin Koe and Newfoundland and Labrador’s Brad Gushue.

“You can’t help but think maybe you’re going to beat this guy if he’s having a bad day, but we gave it right back to him,” said Jacobs. “That was a little unfortunate, but that’s the name of the game sometimes.”

EXTRA ENDS: Attendance at the Metro Centre is now 86,656 for the week, with three more games to go.

— Canwest News Service