It was not a good Monday morning at the Brier for VernonB´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·™s Jim Cotter.
Cotter and his rink of third Steve Laycock, second Tyrel Griffith and lead Rick Sawatsky suffered their first loss at the Canadian menB´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·™s curling championships in Brandon, falling 10-4 in eight ends to defending champion Brad Gushue and Team Canada of Newfoundland/Labrador.
The match was a battle of two of the three teams sitting atop Pool B in the preliminary round standings with 2-0 records.
Gushue started the scoring early, picking up a deuce with the hammer in the opening end, then stealing a point in the second for a 3-0 lead. Cotter made a hit-and-stick with his final stone in the third end to score a pair and get back to within one, but Gushue scored three in the fourth to take a 6-2 lead.
Cotter had single points in the fifth and seventh ends, but the defending champs added a second three-spot sandwiched in between for a 9-3 lead. The B.C. champs shook hands after Gushue scored one in the eighth end.
Cotter falls to 2-1 heading into a game at 5 p.m. Pacific with Terry Odishaw of New Brunswick.
Odishaw dropped to 1-2, giving up a steal of four in the 10th end to fall 12-7 to AlbertaB´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·™s Kevin Koe, who improved to 3-0.
Koe and Gushue meet at 5 p.m.
Nova ScotiaB´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·™s Stuart Thompson improved to 2-1 with a 6-5 win over Jamie Koe of the Northwest Territories, who falls to 0-3.
OntarioB´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·™s Scott McDonald scored a 9-2 win over Dave St. Louis of Nunavut in a battle of teams that entered the game at 0-2.
The top four teams in each of the eight-team pools will advance to the second round-robin starting Thursday, carrying over their preliminary round records. Top four teams after the second round-robin advance to SaturdayB´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·™s playoffs.
roger@vernonmorningstar.com
Like us on and follow us on .