Team Scott Howard stays hot with 12-5 win over Team Owen Purcell at 2025 Home Hardware Pre-Trials

A dream start for Team Scott Howard (2-0; Navan, Ont.) at the 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trials, was accentuated with a 12-5 win over Team Owen Purcell (0-2; Halifax) on Monday evening at the Andrew H. McCain Arena in Wolfville, N.S.

The two-win day, which began with a morning draw victory over 9-4 win over Team Jayden King (0-2; London, Ont.), vaults the collective of skip Howard, vice-skip Mat Camm, second Jason Camm, lead Scott Chadwick and coach Glenn Howard, to a perfect undefeated record through round robin play thus far.

“Anytime you start off with an event with two wins is great,” said Howard. “You get the confidence going. The boys are playing well. You only play seven round-robin games, so every game is very important. To get those two off the start is awesome for our confidence.”

It’s a sense of confidence that has sprouted from Team Howard’s comfort level with the playing conditions, which suits its playstyle.

“After we finished practice yesterday, I went to (head ice technician) Greg Ewasko and said, ‘This is the best ice we’ve ever practised on,’ it just makes the shots that much easier to make,” said Howard. “If the ice can stay this way all week, we’re going to make a lot of shots and we’re very pleased with it so far.”

Team Howard landed the game’s biggest blow in the early ends, smacking a score of five thanks to some clever rock placement and a missed runback attempt by Purcell in the third end. 

It also proved to be an essential tally after Team Howard surrendered a score of three just one end prior.

“We just had all the right angles,” said Howard of the big end. “The end was looking good and, unfortunately, Owen wrong-sided the runback which gave us the shot for five. It was a good bounce-back end after giving up the terrible three in the second. To get that lead after three ends was awesome for us.”

In other action Monday evening, Team Myla Plett (1-1; Edmonton/Sherwood Park, Alta.) bested Team Krista Scharf (0-2; Thunder Bay, Ont.) 10-2 while Team Ashley Thevenot (1-1; Martensville, Sask) defeated clubmates Team Nancy Martin (1-1; Martensville) 9-5. In men’s play, Team Jordon McDonald (2-0; Winnipeg) downed Team Jayden King (0-2; London, Ont.) 11-6 and Team Jean-Michel Ménard (2-0; Montréal) needed an extra end to win 6-5 over Team Sam Mooibroek (1-1; Whitby, Ont.).

The 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trials continues Tuesday with draws at 9 a.m., 2 p.m., and 7 p.m., (all times AT).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trials are available by CLICKING HERE.

Live streaming of the 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trial is available on Curling Canada’s YouTube during the round robin by CLICKING HERE. TSN and RDS will provide coverage of the 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Pre-Trials playoffs. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trials, go to www.curling.ca/2025pretrials/tickets/.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible HERE.