Johnston, Jacobs jump to 6-0 at Northern Ontario men's curling championship

Thunder Bay’s Dylan Johnston and five-time champion Brad Jacobs are on a collision course after six draws at the Northern Ontario men’s curling championship in Kenora.

The two rinks continued their unbeaten runs on Friday, each skip taking a pair of games to improve to 6-0 on the week.

Johnston, lead Travis Showalter, second Chris Briand and third Mike Badiuk, will clash with Jacobs on Saturday, in a match that should determine first place.

Johnston, a former Northern Ontario junior champion, edged fellow Thunder Bay skip and nine-time provincial champion Al Hackner 9-8 in the morning draw, then scored three in the ninth to rally for a 6-4 win over Thunder Bay’s Ben Mikkelsen.

Jacobs also took care of Hackner on Friday, sealing his 6-4 win with a steal of one in the 10th. Jacobs took down Mikkelsen 9-3 in a morning match.

Mikkelsen slipped to 1-5, in a three-way tie for last place with Bryan Burgess, also of Thunder Bay, and Chris Glibota.

Thunder Bay’s Jeff Currie, the defending champion, kept his slim playoff hopes alive, edging Glibota 6-5 on Friday night. Earlier in the day Currie (2-4) lost 7-3 to former champion Mike Jakubo (3-3).