CanadaCup-Draw6-Nov29
Glenn Howard watches his shot during Draw 6 at Mosaic Place

The playoff picture at the 2012 Capital One Canada Cup of Curling became a little clear on Thursday at Mosaic Place as some teams separated from the pack and others climbed back into the race.

One team that finds itself back in the thick of things after a dominating Day 2 is the Glenn Howard rink.  After looking out of sync on Day 1, they bounced back in a huge way on Thursday with a 10-4 win over John Epping in Draw 5 and a 12-4 win over Kevin Koe in Draw 6 to move to 2-2.

“It's such a tough field and you don't want to get behind the eight ball and we did (on Wednesday),” explained Howard.  “We didn't play every well at all on Wednesday and it showed.  Today we came back, regrouped, and bottom line, we talked about it and went out and had fun.  We went out there and made a ton more shots and are right back in the hunt again.”

Howard certainly is in the hunt again.  His win over Koe put those two rinks in a tie for the final playoff spot in the men's event.  Mike McEwen and Jeff Stoughton have the top two spots pretty much locked up at 4-0 after two days.

The biggest change for the Howard rink on Day 2, according to the veteran skip was finding out the tricks of the Mosaic Place ice.  “We really struggled with the ice on the first day, it was a little tough, but you've got to deal with that and we didn't deal with it very well.  Today we did, we really kept an eye on where the little nuances were and I thought we picked it up really well and played really well.”

Howard scored big in his game against Koe on Thursday night, showing signs of turn around in the team's game.  They scored three in the second end, two in the fourth, stole one in the fifth and finished off the game with authority by scoring six in the ninth.

The defending Brier champions can assure themselves a spot in a tiebreaker at least with a pair of wins on Friday in the final day of the round robin and Howard says that's exactly what they were hoping for, “You don't want to be relying on anybody else, so if we win both games then we're in something, so that's what we have to do and we can control that.”

Howard will get his old nemesis Kevin Martin in the morning draw at 9:00am and then finish off his round robin against the struggling Brad Gushue rink, who sit at 0-4 after the two days.

Other men's Draw 6 action had Stoughton keeping his strong play going with a 9-5 win over the Gushue rink, and McEwen also continuing his role with an 8-6 win over Martin.

Nedohin Likes Her Team's Play

The Stefanie Lawton rink has been the talk of the tournament, but the defending Scotties champion Heather Nedohin rink has quietly build up a strong showing here in Moose Jaw.

She finished off a great Day 2 by picking up a big 8-3 win over the Jennifer Jones rink, who dropped both their games on Thursday to fall back into a three way tie for third with Sherri Middaugh and Crystal Webster at 2-2.

Nedohin started Thursday by beating Middaugh in the morning draw 8-6 and has a 3-1 record after two days worth of play.

“I thought we've played solid as a unit right from lead through to the skip,” said Nedohin after the final draw on Thursday.  “It's nice any day to get two wins, but today was a great day obviously because it's the middle day of the three day pack.  It was a good tone as a team, we worked hard as a unit.

“We felt really good splitting the first day knowing who you're facing, but wins are very important here when you've only got six games, one loss can be really detrimental.  We feel we've positioned ourselves really well heading into (Friday) and it's a matter of making shots here on through.”

The Nedohin rink is another one that is in control of her own destiny, she plays Crystal Webster in Draw 8 at 2:00pm and the winless Cathy Overton-Clapham rink to end the round robin.  With a 3-1 record, one win will get her into a tiebreaker.

Other women's action from Thursday's Draw 6 had Chelsea Carey getting her first win of the event, beating Overton-Clapham, 7-4, to move to 1-3.

The undefeated Lawton rink will be on the ice for the Friday morning draw at 9:00am against Webster and then finish off the round robin against Overton-Clapham at 2:00pm.

Other Canada Cup Notes...  Attendance is increasing with every draw.  The Thursday night draw saw 2,411 people take in the action at Mosaic Place and so far 11,292 people have checked out the event.  That number will no doubt be on the rise with the weekend on the horizon and some good match ups on Friday.  You can still get tickets by visiting the Mosaic Place box office, or mosaicplace.ca.