KAMLOOPS, February 27…Reigning Canadian and world champion Glenn Howard won his first game Wednesday afternoon at the Strauss Canada Cup, beating up on Winnipeg’s Kerry Burtnyk, 8-2.

The game only went six ends after Howard stole a single in the fifth, then two more in the sixth.

Howard’s Coldwater, Ontario foursome finished second at this event in 2006.  Both Howard and Burtnyk are also headed to the Tim Hortons Brier, which gets underway March 8 in Winnipeg.

The other men’s game at the Interior Savings Centre also produced a thrashing, as Edmonton’s Kevin Koe handled Brad Gushue of St. John’s, 8-3.

On the women’s side, Stefanie Lawton of Saskatoon opened with a 7-3 victory over Kristie Moore of Edmonton, Calgary’s Cheryl Bernard proved a 6-3 winner over Janet Harvey of Winnipeg and Calgary’s Shannon Kleibrink, runner-up to Jennifer Jones at the recently-concluded Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Regina and winner of the 2005 Strauss Canada Cup, beat Heather Rankin, also of Calgary, 7-5.

Wednesday’s remaining draws are at 4:30 pm and 8:30 pm PT.   Draws on Thursday are at 8:30 am, 1:30 pm and 7:00 pm, with Friday’s games at 8:30 am, 1:30 pm and 6:00 pm, prior to the playoffs.

The Cup teams are seeded into two five-team groups and play a round robin within the group plus a crossover game against an opponent in the other group.  The top two in each pool then advance to a crossover Page Playoff system, whereby the group winners meet in one game (winner to final, loser to semi-final), while the group runners-up meet in another game (winner to semi-final, loser eliminated).

In women’s, Pool A consists of Jennifer Jones, Cheryl Bernard, Sherry Anderson, Cathy King and Janet Harvey, while Pool B has Shannon Kleibrink, Kelly Scott, Stefanie Lawton, Heather Rankin and Kristie Moore.   In men’s, Pool C has Kevin Martin, Kevin Koe, Jeff Stoughton, Pat Simmons and Mike McEwen, while Pool D lists Glenn Howard, Randy Ferbey, Kerry Burtnyk, Brad Gushue and Reid Carruthers (replaced by Charley Thomas).

CBC-TV will televise the 1 vs 1 Page Playoff games on Saturday, March 1 and the women’s and men’s finals on Sunday, March 2, in a special five-hour telecast.   CurlTV (www.curltv.com) is also providing event coverage to its subscribers.

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