Music: {allcanada} ALBERTA, MANITOBA TIED FOR BRIER LEAD; PLAY TONIGHT ON TSN2

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

{allcanada} ALBERTA, MANITOBA TIED FOR BRIER LEAD; PLAY TONIGHT ON TSN2

LONDON, Ont. -- Northern Ontario kept its slim playoff hopes alive with a 5-4 win over Ontario's Glenn Howard on Wednesday at the John Labatt Centre. Skip Brad Jacobs scored one on a takeout in the extra end for the victory.

Alberta skip Kevin Martin improved to 7-1 after an 11-3 rout of Saskatchewan. Martin led 5-0 after three ends and added four more in the fifth to put the game out of reach.

"Hopefully we can just keep building," Martin said. "That's what you want to do any time you play a week-long event. You want to gradually get better and better. We've done that so far.

"Hopefully we don't hit a wall and go down the other direction. If we can just keep it up going upwards we'll be all right."

Manitoba's Jeff Stoughton moved into a first-place tie with Martin following a 7-6 win over Saskatchewan in 11 ends in the afternoon draw. Stoughton faces Martin in the feature evening matchup.

Howard improved to 7-2 with an 11-1 win in five ends over Prince Edward Island in the afternoon draw. Newfoundland and Labrador's Brad Gushue joined Howard at the mark with a 9-3 victory over Nova Scotia in the morning before downing New Brunswick 6-5 in the afternoon.

Jim Cotter of British Columbia edged Francois Gagne of Quebec 8-7 in the other early game.

Northern Ontario is 4-4 entering play Wednesday night. Saskatchewan is next at 4-5 while Nova Scotia and the Northwest Territories/Yukon are both at 3-5. B.C. is at 3-6 while New Brunswick and Quebec are 2-6 and Prince Edward Island was last at 1-7.

Round-robin play wraps up Thursday night. The top four teams make the playoffs.

NOTES -- Attendance for the morning draw was 4,211. That pushed the overall total to 54,385. ... Winnipeg has been selected as the host city for the 2013 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings Canadian curling trials. The event will determine Canada's representatives for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The trials will be held Dec. 1-8, 2013 at the MTS Centre, the Canadian Curling Association announced Wednesday. Ottawa and Saskatoon were also in the running. The 2009 event was held in Edmonton.