A string of steals turned a tight early game into a runaway win for Brad Jacobs on Friday

Fresh off winning an Olympic gold medal in Italy, Brad Jacobs opened up the Montana’s Brier on Friday night in successful fashion.

In the tournament as the defending champions, the Jacobs rink, which includes third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant, and lead Ben Hebert, grabbed an 8-3 victory over Tyler Smith of Prince Edward Island Friday night in St. John’s, N.L.

After the teams traded deuces in the opening two ends, Smith blanked the third end before giving up a steal of one in the fourth end.

Jacobs would grab single-point steals in the fifth and sixth ends before stealing three more in the seventh end to take an 8-2 lead before Smith would cap off the scoring with a single in the eighth end

Hebert missed Friday’s opener due to illness, leading to the team playing with three curlers for the game.

Smith’s team was also down to three players for their opener.

Jacobs returns to action in the evening draw on Saturday when the team faces Kelly Knapp’s Saskatchewan-based rink.

Matt Dunstone’s Manitoba-based team that features local brothers E.J. and Ryan Harnden is also back in the event after losing to Jacobs in last year’s final.

The Dunstone rink opens their round robin schedule on Saturday afternoon against James Grattan of New Brunswick.

The winner of the event represents Canada at the World Men’s Curling Championship, which is being held this year in Ogden, Utah at the end of March.

Teams in the 18-team field have been split into two pools. After the round robin, the top three teams in each pool will advance to the playoffs.

Initially in the playoff round, the first place team from Pool A will face the second place team from Pool B and vice versa and the winners will advance to the 1v2 Page playoff game. The losing teams will face the third place teams for the remaining spots in the Page playoff.

The winning team in the 1v2 Page playoff game will advance to the final with the losing team playing in the winner of the 3v4 Page playoff game in a semifinal.