The playoff picture will start to take shape at the Safeway Championship on Friday morning in Winnipeg.
Brandon’s Rob Fowler will play an A-Side qualifier against former teammate Richard Deneault.
Deneault played with Fowler during their Manitoba championship and Brier bronze medal run in 2012, but went their separate ways this year.
Fowler stole two in the fifth end and knocked off Richard Muntain 9-6 Thursday to advance and Fowler feels his rink is in a good spot.
"It obviously gets you two chances to qualify for the final eight, that’s kind of step one in the process here. We got the ‘W’, which was good," said Fowler.
Fifth-seed William Lyburn is also going after a playoff spot on the 8:30 a.m. draw against Randy Neufeld.
Lyburn was a semifinalist at the 2012 provincials and the former Brandonite hasn’t forgotten that setback.
"I mean there are three shots that if I was in the same position again in the future, how do we prevent me from throwing it the way that we did. We built a program around that and that’s what we’re working on. It’s a work in progress," said Lyburn.
Top-seed Jeff Stoughton takes on Brandonite Steve Irwin and second-seed Mike McEwen meets Steen Sigurdson on the A-Side.
Irwin picked up his second win by scoring three in the third end en route to a 7-4 victory over David Kraichy.
Meanwhile, Carberry’s William Kuran and Neepawa’s Kelly Robertson are out of the running while Virden’s Graham Freeman is still in the mix on the B-Side.
"It’s just one of those things. Just the way the New Year’s gone, we were on a holiday and we haven’t done a lot of curling and it kind of showed," said Robertson. "It was good to get the rust off and we’re looking forward to the seniors coming up and probably that’s where we are better suited for."