Howard not resting on 4-0 start in P.E.I.

Sitting pretty at 4-0 after Day 4 of the 2017 Home Hardware Road to the Roar curling pre-trials, Glenn Howard might be expected to be feeling pretty good about himself and his rink.

But Howard is a little too seasoned to take anything for granted.

“I don’t think you can ever breathe easy,” the much-decorated Etobicoke skip said. “You don’t want to rest on your laurels, you don’t want to get complacent. You want to put the proverbial pedal to the metal and keep putting Ws under your belt. You obviously want to get to first or second in your pool and that gets you in the main part of the playoffs.”

Team Howard endured a roller-coaster ride in Thursday’s afternoon draw, taking a 8-5 decision off Jason Gunnlaugson of Winnipeg to remain unbeaten in the tournament in Summerside, P.E.I.

“It was an amazing game, to be honest with you,” Howard said. “Jason Gunnlaugson and the kids were incredible, my team was incredible. It was a battle of the giants. The shotmaking was exceptional. It was very well-curled. Momentum went back and forth about two or three times. We kind of had it, gave it up. He had it, gave it up. And then lo and behold, Jason had a very tough but makable shot at the end and he missed it, fortunately for us.”

The Howard team features third Adam Spencer, second David Mathers and lead Scott Howard. Spencer came on this season in place of longtime third Richard Hart, who had to bow out due to knee problems and has assumed coaching duties.

They came to Summerside with great expectations borne of recent success.

“We had a mediocre start to the season. We had the bad news about Richard Hart not being able to play and I got Adam Spencer out of retirement to fill his shoes. We had a few bumps along the road,” Howard said. “But then the last two bonspiels, we lost a final in Portage and then won a bonspiel in Sarnia just before we got here. So we played a ton of games and won a ton of games and coming into an event when you’ve just won something, it’s unbelievable. It gives you that little boost.”

A four-time world champ, there aren’t many situations Howard hasn’t seen. And that has to give a bit of an edge to the 55-year-old. “It can’t hurt,” he said. Howard sits atop Pool A with four rinks behind him — Gunnlaugson, Colton Flasch, John Morris and Adam Casey — at 2-2, an enviable position. He finishes the round robin portion on Friday against Casey and Morris.