Saskatchewan's Pat Simmons is giving his province something to cheer about at the Tim Hortons Brier Canadian men's curling championship in Winnipeg.

Simmons and his team from the Davidson Curling Club — third Jeff Sharp, second Gerry Adam and lead Steve Laycock — improved to 3-0, part of a four-way tie for the lead, on Sunday night with an 8-4 win over Bob Ursel of B.C.

It's the first time a Saskatchewan team has opened the Brier with three straight victories since Jim Packet did it in 1989.

"So far, so good," said Simmons, who's tied for the lead at 3-0 with Kevin Martin of Alberta, Kerry Burtnyk of Manitoba and Glenn Howard of Ontario, who all had byes. "I would officially call it a pretty good start now. It looked like we played a little bit better tonight, and hopefully we keep going in the right direction."

B.C. remained winless at 0-3 after the loss.

Newfoundland/Labrador's Brad Gushue, meanwhile, got into the win column after a 7-5 win over Eric Harnden of Northern Ontario. Gushue's St. John's team recorded a crucial steal of one in the seventh end, and put the game away with a deuce in the ninth end. Both teams are at 1-2.

In other Draw 5 play, New Brunswick's James Grattan picked up his first win of the Brier, scoring a 9-4 victory over Chad Cowan of the Yukon/Northwest Territories. The result left both teams with a 1-2 record.

And in the other game, Quebec's Jean-Michel Menard stole five in the first end, three more in the second and added four in the fourth in a 13-2 rout of Nova Scotia's Brian Rafuse. Both teams moved to 1-2.

P.E.I.'s Peter Gallant (0-3) also had a bye in Draw 5.

Play at the the Tim Hortons Brier resumes Monday, with games scheduled for 9:30 a.m., 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. (all times Eastern; curltv.com will show the morning draw, while the latter two draws will be on TSN.