February 15....There will be two 'Howards' skipping at the Tim Hortons Brier, March 7-15 in Calgary...Ontario's Glenn Howard and his older brother, New Brunswick's 53-year-old (as of February 19) Russ Howard, also formerly of Ontario.  

Russ Howard and his Gage Golf & Curling Association team of third James Grattan, second (and son) Steve Howard and lead Peter Case won the Keith's Tankard at the Thistle St. Andrews Curling Club in Saint John, defeating Moncton's Rick Perron, 8-6 in the final. 

Down 5-4 after giving up three in the sixth end, Howard rebounded with a single in the seventh, then stole a crucial deuce in the eighth end to take command, 7-5.

Howard's team had finished first in the eight-team round robin with a 5-2 record to advance to the final.   Perron finished in a three-way tie for second with Charlie Sullivan and Terry Odishaw, all with 4-3 marks.  Perron first eliminated Odishaw, 9-7 in a tiebreaker for third, then dispatched Sullivan, 8-7 in an extra end semi-final.

Howard, the Brier's all-time leader in appearances (13, all as skip), games-won (107) and games-lost (56), is a two-time world champion (1987 and 1993) and also captured a gold medal at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy, skipping the Brad Gushue rink while throwing second stones.  Howard last appeared in the Brier in 2004 in Saskatoon, but also lost the Canadian Senior men's final last year in Prince Albert to Saskatchewan's Eugene Hritzuk.

Ironically, he'll be facing several of his gold-medal winning teammates at the Brier, since Gushue will once again be representing Newfoundland and Labrador.
 
Grattan makes his seventh Brier appearance.  He skipped his province in 1997 in Calgary in his Brier debut, finishing a surprising third to Alberta's Kevin Martin with an overall mark of 9-4, after losing the semi-final to Manitoba's Vic Peters.  In 2002, 2003 and 2004, he played third for Russ Howard.  He skipped again in 2006 (5-6 in Regina) and 2008 (2-9 in Winnipeg).

Second Steve Howard was the alternate for Russ Howard's team at the 2004 Brier, but did not play.  Lead Peter Case makes his second Brier appearance, after playing lead for Grattan last year.

New Brunswick has never won the Brier.  Its best finish in recent times was a second-place finish in 2000 in Saskatoon, when Howard lost to British Columbia's Greg McAulay in the final.

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