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Temperature lowered: Brier fuss over Northern Ontario broom tap handled by team, Curling Canada

Northern Ontario's E.J. and Ryan Harnden on sweeping patrol during their Brier round robin game, against Ontario, on Monday night. (Michael Burns/Curling Canada)
Northern Ontario's E.J. and Ryan Harnden on sweeping patrol during their Brier round robin game, against Ontario, on Monday night. (Michael Burns/Curling Canada)

The Background: During Monday night's 7-3 win by Northern Ontario over their provincial brothers from the south, there were some hard feelings about the way Brad Jacobs' rink from Sault Ste. Marie handled an important breach of etiquette by Mark Kean's crew from Fenelon Falls.

With members of Kean's team occasionally keeping knees on the ice after shooting - a big no no when it comes to treatment of the playing surface - Northern Ontario took it upon themselves to deliver more than verbal reminders that you shouldn't do that.

You can read most the details of what happened here.

In the wake of a social media argument over who was right and who was wrong, the Northern Ontario team took to Facebook to make sure their side of the story was clearly known:

(Team Jacobs Facebook page)
(Team Jacobs Facebook page)

There'd been some hurt feelings in all of this, with a report that the Ontario team had lodged an official complaint against Jacobs' team. Curling Canada (until just recently, known as the Canadian Curling Association) publicly dealt with the matter on Twitter:

The messages: No more nudging the opposition. No more melting the ice with hands and knees. And bring the officials into the mix if you have an objection. That's what they're there for.