Back on course at Sochi: Jacobs and Team Canada at their bellowing best against Russia

Brad Jacobs had just made a pistol of a shot in the fourth end of Canada's 7 - 4 win over the Russians, blasting a double run back that removed a buried Russian stone from the button and cleared the front of the house of two centre guards. No fist pump from him. No exhortations from his teammates. That was to come later.

"Sorry guys," said Jacobs, flatly and quietly.

Sorry that he didn't stick a raised Canadian rock in the rings, which would have made his pistol of a shot absolutely sensational. As it was, Jacobs' first shot of the third was damn good, and should have turned the end around for Canada.

"It just feels a different vibe with Team Jacobs," said commentator Mike Harris.

"The intensity level is certainly there," he continued. "I'm sensing more precision. It's a good, positive intensity they've got going right now."

Moments later, Jacobs clipped a guard on a peel attempt and allowed the Russians to steal one, forging a 2 - 2 tie.

Perhaps, then, they weren't leaving the launch pad after all. Jacobs, though, did not look terribly upset in the wake of that steal but, rather, a little unmoved. Stone-faced, he said not a word as the stones were organized for the fifth end. At the time, you couldn't really be sure what to make of that.

That fourth end had aptly illustrated the way it had been going for the Canadian men and their skip. While their female counterparts had been burning it up at the curling venue, Jacobs and his mates were blowing hot and cold, struggling to a 1 and 2 start, heading into a game that they simply had to have.

Had to have in the sense that Russia's men's curling team can't pull off the fancy pants look the way the Norwegians can. In other words, while Tomas Ulsrud's rink from Norway has a shot at a gold medal, the Russians have no such claim at these Olympics and are about the closest thing to a gimme as there is on the men's side.

It must certainly have been frustrating. A wobbly start in their first three games and now, in a tie with a team they should be brushing aside like lint from a collar. That frustration would give way to an exasperated elation that was on display for all to see and hear.

It changed in the fifth end, when Canada cracked a score of four to roar out to a 6 - 2 lead.

How much did Jacobs, Ryan Fry, E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden want to get their jets fired up?

When Jacobs pounded a Russian counter out of the rings with blistering authority, his sweepers - the Harnden brothers - raised their brooms sharply in the air and bellowed with such ferocity and volume that surely a few panels of shoddily hung drywall came crashing down in a media hotel somewhere.

That might just be the sound of the gold medal favourites getting their mojo back. The kind of mojo so essential to them. The kind that had them stomping through the Olympic Trials. The kind that led them to a dominant win at last year's Brier.

Soon after the relief of a big fifth end, Fry cooly peeled out a couple of stones to dismantle what looked like a promising end for the Russians. With a big lead, Canada went on defence, forcing the Russian team into blanks and burning the late ends away. Another Fry double in the ninth paved the way for a Canadian single as cruise control was fully set.

Canada faces a stiffer test on Thursday, when they face young Rasmus Sterjne and the Danish squad. After that, it's a couple of giants, with games against Norway and Great Britain on the horizon.

Those will be the telling competitions, heading ever closer to the medal round.

For now, at least, Brad Jacobs and his team are back to their bellowing, fist-pumping best.

Is it here to stay?