Glenn Howard eased his way into the 1-2 Page playoff game at the Ontario Tankard in Cobourg.
The 16-time provincial champion from Penetanguishene scored four in the second and rolled out to a 9-2 victory over Codey Maus of London during the final round-robin draw Friday night.
It was a bounce back for Howard, who started the tournament hot winning five straight before cooling down losing his next three.
Howard will play Toronto’s John Epping, who had already locked down the top spot for Saturday afternoon’s 1-2 game and cruised to close out preliminary play with a 4-2 win over Mark Bice of Sarnia.
Epping (8-1) was able to build an early 3-0 lead without the hammer thanks to steals. After a blank in the first end, Bice misfired on a risky shot in the second that knocked another one of Epping’s stones in for two. Bice looked to blank the third end while facing two, but could get only one counter to go out of the rings and gave up another steal.
A single in four put Bice on the board and Epping matched in five to retake the three-point lead.
With bagels on the board in six and seven, Bice drew to the four-foot circle for just a point in eight. Epping blanked the ninth with a heat-seeker that narrowly missed a guard and peeled out Bice’s lone counter in the house. A double takeout by Epping on his first skip stone in the 10th ran the Bice squad (4-5) out of rocks and right out of the tournament.
Scott Bailey of Dundas qualified for the playoffs earlier Friday edging Cory Heggestad of Stroud 7-6 in an extra end. Bailey (6-3) has the No. 3 seed and awaits the winner of a double tiebreaker between Maus, Wayne Tuck Jr. and Greg Balsdon of Kingston as all three finished with 5-4 records.
Tuck remained in contention with some-late game heroics scoring two in the ninth and stealing three in the 10th to complete a 9-5 comeback over Dayna Deruelle of Kingston.
Balsdon doubled up on Toronto’s Mike Harris 10-5 as the 2014 Ontario champion battled back from a 2-4 record to win his final three round-robin games and set up the scenario.
Maus and Balsdon meet Saturday morning with the winner taking on Tuck in the afternoon for the fourth and final playoff spot.
Meanwhile, Cathy Auld of Dundas ousted Allison Flaxey of Caledon 10-4 in the women’s tiebreaker. Auld advances to Saturday’s semifinal against two-time Ontario winner Rachel Homan. Jacqueline Harrison of Mississauga secured the bye to Sunday’s final after finishing atop of the round-robin table.
