The road to the Brier started on Thursday with the opening games of the 2014 SaskTel Men's Southern Curling Championship in Regina at the Highland Curling Club.

Wade Sydorko is the lone rink curling out of the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre taking part in the event and they got off to a great start in the opening draw.  Sydorko cruised to an easy 11-3 win over Justin Mihalicz.

The game was tight early on with Mihalicz leading 1-0 until the fourth end.  Sydorko would put back-to-back singles on the board to take a 2-1 lead before Mihalicz bounced back for two in the sixth.

It was in the seventh end when Sydorko blew the game wide open as he scored six points in the end and took an 8-3 lead.  He closed the game out by stealing three more in the eighth for the easy opening win.

Moose Jaw's Joel Jordison is curling out of the Regina Highland Club for the event and he opened things up a lopsided win as well, knocking off Swift Current's Reagan Hadden, 8-2.

Jordison led early, going up 3-0 after the third, and never gave up that lead.  He finished things off with three in the seventh to move on in the A event.

Moose Jaw's Brock Montgomery and the Josh Heidt rink opened the event with a win on Thursday night as well, sneaking past Regina Callie's Gord Bell, 6-5, thanks to a single in the tenth.  It was a back-and-forth match between the two rinks with three lead changes.

Heidt and Jordison will meet in the quarterfinals of the A event on Friday morning at 9:00am.  Sydorko will also be on the ice for that draw, taking on Estevan's Brent Gedak.