Glenn Howard is on a roll at the Ontario Recharge with Milk Tankard in Brantford.
The four-time world champion from Penetanguishene doubled his win total Wednesday with a trio of victories to climb to 6-0 record and lead the round-robin standings.
Howard capped the day pitching an 11-0 shutout in just five ends over Ian Dickie (1-6) of Newmarket during the evening draw.
After scoring a deuce in the second, Howard stole three points in the third, four in the fourth and swiped two more in the fifth to end the night early.
Team Howard has relied upon Adam Spencer from the spare pool after Wayne Middaugh sustained a broken leg last month in a skiing accident.
Recharge with Milk Tankard: Live Scores | Standings
Toronto’s John Epping experienced his first loss of the tournament falling 8-3 to Ottawa’s Mike McLean in the afternoon. Epping bounced back to beat former teammate Mike Harris of Toronto 6-2 and maintain second place overall.
Team Epping (5-1) continue to be steal machines as they broke a tie stealing singles in three consecutive ends to lead 5-2 through six ends. Harris blanked the seventh, but Epping swiped another point in eight to bring out the handshakes.
Harris, the 1998 Nagano Olympics silver medallist, won both of his earlier matches Wednesday and sits in third place with a 5-2 record.
McLean, with third Jake Higgs calling the game, has improved to a 4-3 record after dropping his first pair of games on the opening night. McLean stole four points in the eighth end to close out a 7-2 victory over 2014 Ontario champ Greg Balsdon (4-2) of Toronto.
Elswhere Wednesday night, Joe Frans of Ingersoll and Pat Ferris of Grimsby both evened their records to 3-3. Frans scored a 9-8 extra-end victory over Wayne Tuck (0-7) of Brantford while Ferris picked up an 8-6 win over Dayna Deruelle (2-4) of Brampton.
Mark Bice (2-4) of Sarnia held the bye in the evening draw and looks to turn his tournament around. Bice, who won the 2014 Ontario title playing third for Balsdon, won his first two games Monday but has dropped four straight since.
The Recharge with Milk Tankard continues Thursday with Draw 8 at 2 p.m. ET (watch live on Rogers TV Sports+). The winner of the event will represent Ontario at the Tim Hortons Brier next month in Ottawa.
NEW BRUNSWICK
Fredericton’s Rene Comeau and Moncton’s Mike Kennedy top the leaderboard of the New Brunswick Pepsi Tankard in Saint John with 2-0 records after Day 1.
Comeau, a bronze medallist at last year’s Canadian junior championship, opened Wednesday’s action with a 10-9 extra-end victory over James Grattan of Oromocto and slid past Wayne Tallon of Fredericton 11-4 in the evening draw. Trailing 4-2, Comeau took control of the game with a three-ender in five and followed that up stealing three in the seventh and another trio in eight.
Meanwhile, Kennedy stole two points in the extra end to defeat Jason Roach of Saint John 9-7 and downed Moncton’s Rick Perron 9-3.
Defending champion Jeremy Mallais of Saint John struggled out of the gate with a 0-2 record falling to Perron 7-5 and Roach 7-2.
Grattan, who has appeared at the Brier 11 times, bounced back from the loss to Comeau with a 10-5 win over Terry Odishaw of Moncton.
Odishaw is also at 1-1 earning a 6-2 win over Tallon in the opening draw.
The round robin continues Thursday with Draw 3 at 2 p.m. AT.
SASKATCHEWAN
Steve Laycock of Saskatoon got off to a hot start to kick off the SaskTel Tankard Wednesday in Kindersley.
The defending champion broke a tie with a four-ender in the fifth and stole singles in consecutive ends during a 9-3 win over Regina’s William Coutts.
Laycock now faces Scott Bitz Thursday morning at 9 a.m. CT in the A bracket of the triple knockout preliminary round. Bitz stole four points in the extra end to beat Jason Ackerman 10-6 in an all-Regina rink match.
Dean Kleiter defeated fellow Saskatoon native Jason Jacobson 8-4 and Ryan Deis of Fox Valley topped Jeff Hartung of Langenburg 5-3 to round out the opening draw.