Vernon鈥檚 Jim Cotter is 2-0 at the Tim Hortons Brier Canadian Men鈥檚 Curling Championship in Brandon.

Cotter, supported by third Steve Laycock of Saskatoon, second Tyrel Griffith of Kelowna and lead Rick Sawatsky of Vernon (Brad Wood of Penticton is fifth man) defeated David St. Louis of Iqaluit, Nunavut 10-4 Sunday afternoon. Nunavut falls to 0-2.

The B.C. champs took control of the match in the fourth end, scoring four to take a 5-2 lead. It was 5-3 Cotter at the fifth-end Break.

With the hammer, Cotter scored two more in six, gave up one in seven, then drew early handshakes with by scoring three in the eighth.

Cotter, defending champion Team Canada (Brad Gushue, Newfoundland/Labrador) and Alberta鈥檚 Kevin Koe of Calgary sit atop Group B at 2-0. Gushue defeated Koe鈥檚 younger brother Jamie Koe of the Northwest Territories 7-5. The Territories fall to 0-2.

Kevin Koe, who beat Cotter in the 2014 Brier final in Cotter鈥檚 hometown of Kamloops, defeated Scott McDonald of Ontario 8-5. McDonald dropped to 0-2.

Odishaw dropped to 1-1 with a 7-3 loss to Stuart Thompson of Nova Scotia. Thompson is 1-1.

Cotter plays twice on Monday: vs defending champion Team Canada at 7 a.m. Pacific, and against New Brunswick at 5 p.m. Pacific.

In Pool A, Brad Jacobs (Northern Ontario) and Mike McEwen (Manitoba) improved to 2-0 Sunday morning to sit atop the group heading into Draw 5 Sunday night. Four teams are tied at 1-1: Wild Card (Brendan Bottcher, Edmonton); Saskatchewan (Kirk Muyres, Saskatoon, Laycock鈥檚 former team); Quebec (Martin Crete, Saint-Romuald); Prince Edward Island (John Likely, Charlottetown).

There are eight rinks in both pools. After a seven-game pool round-robin, the top four in each group advance, bringing their records into a four-game round-robin with the other pool. The top four teams from there move on to the page playoffs.

roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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