Brier championship round opens with Gushue, Epping and Jacobs out in front

REGINA Suspenseful quiet punctuated by explosive cheering signalled a shift in atmosphere Thursday at the Canadian men’s curling championship.

Under the new format introduced this year, the top eight teams with the best records after the first five days of the Tim Hortons Brier carried those records into the championship round.

The top four from that group advance to the playoffs.

That Saskatchewan’s Steve Laycock was among the teams still in the hunt for the national title this year thickened the Brandt Centre tension in the championship round’s first draw Thursday afternoon.

Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs, Ontario’s John Epping and defending champion Brad Gushue remained the frontrunners at 7-1 while Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher fell behind that group at 6-2.

Laycock, an 8-6 winner over Alberta, was tied at 5-3 alongside Manitoba’s Reid Carruthers and wildcard team Mike McEwen of Winnipeg.

Nova Scotia’s Jamie Murphy dropped to a 4-4 after a 6-4 loss to Jacobs.

“At first when we got out there and I looked around at the teams that were left, I kind of thought to myself ‘here we go. This is where all the entertainment and the fun is really going to start,”’ Jacobs said.

“Especially since Saskatchewan was on this draw and are in the championship draw, a big supportive crowd. They were pretty loud out there a few times during that game.”