News National

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. — Hometown hero Brad Jacobs had his fans roaring during his team’s 9-3 win over Mark Kean’s squad from Stoney Creek, Ont., during Wednesday night’s opening draw of the National.

Right from the opening ceremonies, the Essar Centre crowd were on their feet cheering for the Olympic gold medallists Jacobs, Ryan Fry, E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden. The team appeared to feed off of that electric energy capitalizing early by stealing three points in the opening end and never looking back.

E.J. Harnden said it was important for the team to start off their hometown tournament in the win column.

“I think it allows us to feel a bit more comfortable,” he said. “It was just nice to start off on the right foot, get the crowd into it, get the atmosphere where we want it to be and we’re in a good position now moving forward but we know that there’s a long way to go, lots of work left to do and hopefully we can keep it going.”

Jacobs scored a deuce in the fifth to make it 6-2, forced Kean to another single in the sixth, and added another three count in the seventh as the crowd erupted. Harnden said having the fan support helped them throughout the match. 

“It was good because you knew when you’re in the hack after every shot if you made it you’re going to hear some sort of cheering and if you made a big shot you’re going to hear a roar,” Harnden said. “It’s more incentive obviously for us to make some big shots and make every shot we can because we know the crowd is going to be behind us and cheering for each rock that we throw. It was a great start. We didn’t expect anything less and we hope that it continues throughout the week and gets busier and busier.” 

Elsewhere, defending champion Glenn Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont., doubled up on Charlottetown’s Adam Casey 8-4. Howard rolled right out the gate scoring three in the first, forced Casey to a single in the second and added a deuce in the third to establish the four-point advantage. Casey was unable to overcome the gap with Howard matching from there as the teams alternated singles in four and five followed by deuces in six and seven.

“It’s always nice to start off with a win,” Team Howard lead Craig Savill said. “If you lose your first game it feels like you’re on your heels for the rest of it and you don’t want to get two losses. It’s a little scary when you get there because you’re looking at tiebreakers and stuff so it’s nice to get our first win.”

Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen topped Heath McCormick, of Blaine, Minn., 7-4. McEwen scored a deuce in the first and three in the third with single steals in the fourth and fifth ends to lead 7-1. McCormick charged back scoring two in the sixth and stealing one in the seventh but couldn’t complete the rally.

Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton stole points in three consecutive ends to win 7-3 over John Shuster of Duluth, Minn. Stoughton swiped a point in the fifth to break a 3-3 tie and followed that up another single steal in six and a double steal in the seventh.

Calgary’s Kevin Koe picked up a 6-3 victory over Peter de Cruz of Switzerland. De Cruz kept it tight early and tied it up 3-3 with a deuce in the fourth, but Koe pulled back into the lead with a point in the fifth and added single steals in the seventh and eighth to hold on.

The National continues Thursday with Draw 2 at 9 a.m. ET. Round-robin play runs through Friday night with the top eight teams overall qualifying for Saturday’s quarterfinals. The semifinals are on tap Saturday with the final scheduled Sunday.