CurlingZone: Howard and Epping lead Ontario Tankard Field

Glenn Howard (Picture: Anil Mungal, Grand Slam of Curling) will be chasing his 17th Ontario men's curling title as the 2022 provincial Tankard gets underway Wednesday in Port Elgin.

By: Dylan Chenier

The 2022 Ontario Men's Tankard is filled with a number of familiar names as well as some fresh new faces hoping to challenge the province's established guard.

Leading the field into this year's twelve-team event is legendary skip, Glenn Howard. The winner of 17 provincial championships, Howard will be seeking to earn his 18th Brier berth this week in Port Elgin.

At last year's Tim Horton's Brier in Calgary, Howard's rink earned one of three Wild Card spots as a result of their standings in the Candian Team Ranking System. Unfortunately, the 59-year-old four-time national champion was unable to play throughout most of the tournament, due to an injury he suffered in the weeks leading up to the event.

For Team Howard, the months since the 2021 Brier have seen the rink compete in, and win, a number of tour stops. To open the 2021-2022 season, Howard beat Ontario rival Tanner Horgan to win the 2021 Oakville Fall classic. Later in September, the rink competed in the Canadian Curling Trials Direct-Entry Event, where they earned a spot in the 2021 Olympic Pre-Trials.

At the Pre-Trials in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Howard came within one game of advancing to the Olympic Trials, falling to Team Horgan in the second of two qualifier games.

Howard enters this week's Ontario Tankard ranked ninth in the country, the team is currently the second-highest ranking Ontario-based rink in the CTRS standings.

The rink from Penetanguishene opens the triple-knockout tournament with a bye in the first round, before facing the winner of Mitchell vs Reid, in the second round on Thursday morning.

While Howard may be the winningest skip team in the field this week, he's certainly not the only curler with a legitimate threat at winning the event.

Toronto's John Epping has won two out of the last three tankards, including the most recent contest in 2020. After COVID forced organizers to cancel the 2021 provincial championships, Epping's rink was selected as Ontario's representative for the 2021 Brier in Calgary.

Team Epping enters this year's Tankard as the fourth-best rink in the country; they are currently the number-one team in Ontario.

While Glenn Howard's rink has enjoyed its fair share of success and disappoints throughout the first half of the season, Team Epping's 2021-2022 campaign didn't exactly get off to the best of starts.

After losing two straight quarterfinals to open the year, Team Epping would fall to Brad Gushue 6-1 in the semifinals of the Stu Sells Toronto Tankard in October. Epping's rink would then go 1-3 at the GSOC Masters before dropping three straight at the next Grand Slam stop in Chestermere.

Epping's biggest disappointment of the season came at the 2021 Tim Hortons Curling Trials in Saskatoon, where the rink went 3-5 in the round-robin, falling short in their quest to represent Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

As the rink prepared to turn the calendar from 2021 to 2022, they did have a positive result at the ATB Banff Classic to close out the year. After three-straight victories to start the event, Epping defeated Mike McEwen's rink 5-0 in the semis, before downing Kevin Koe 7-5 in the championship final.

Team Epping will be looking to build on that positive momentum from Banff, as they chase another Ontario provincial title. The rink opens their tournament in the second round, as they face either Team Niepage or Mooibroek.

While Tanner Horgan may be a new face in Southern Ontario, the Sudbury-based curler is skipping a team who knows exactly what it takes to win the Ontario championship.

This week, Horgan will be skipping for Jonathan Beuk, Wes Forget, and Scott Chadwick. Those three won the 2019 Tankard while curling for Scott McDonald.

After winning the 2021 Pre-Trials, Team Horgan had a disappointing campaign at the Olympic Trials, going 1-7 to finish the tournament in last place.

The Kingston-based team will be hoping to turn things around this week in Port Elgin, to secure Horgan a spot in his first-ever Tim Hortons Brier as a skip.

Overall, twelve teams will be competing this week in Port Elgin, hoping to represent their province at the 2022 Tim Hortons Brier in Lethbridge, Alberta.

The following rinks will round out the field: Team (Grimsby), Camm (Navan), Kean (Ingersoll), Latimer (Whitby), Mitchell (Whitby), Mooibroek (Waterloo), Niepage (Guelph), Reid (Owen Sound), and Steep (Waterloo)

The 2022 Ontario Tankard runs from February 9th to 13th at The Plex in Port Elgin. The entire event will be streamed live at CurlONTV.ca

Fans can follow live SCORES and BRACKETS at www.CurlingZone.com

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