Brendan Bottcher earned an 11-3 win over Landan Rooney Wednesday in the first round of the PointsBet Invitational.

The second seed closed the game scoring six points between the sixth and eighth ends after being up 5-3.

Bottcher is competing with a new-look team that includes Brett Gallant, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert.

In the remaining Draw 1 games, Glenn Howard defeated Felix Asselin 11-2, Matt Dunstone took a 15-2 win over Greg Smith and Colton Flasch won 6-5 in extra ends over Karsten Sturmay.

Canada's best competing right alongside local Fredericton curlers

The biggest names in Canadian curling are in Fredericton this week.

Fredericton's Jack Smeltzer was invited to play against the top curlers in the country

For the next five days, 16 men's teams and 16 women's teams will play each other in a single-elimination tournament — one loss and the team goes home.

POINTSBET INVITATIONAL FREDERICTON

For the next five days at Willie O'Ree Place, 16 men's and 16 women's teams will play each other in a single-elimination tournament — one loss and the team goes home.

Team Bottcher becomes latest top Canadian curling rink to announce split

Team Brendan Bottcher said Friday that it will split at the end of the season, joining a growing list of top Canadian curling teams who will go their separate ways for the new quadrennial.

Skip Brendan Bottcher, left, and third Pat Janssen, right, seen at the 2022 Brier as Team Canada, will go their separate ways after the season as part of a team-wide split.

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Earlier in the day, Jennifer Jones defeated Andrea Kelly 9-5 in women's first-round play.

The six-time Canadian women's curling champion iced the victory with three points in the ninth end.

Jones has a new-look squad this season. Karlee Burgess played third in the opening game with Mackenzie Zacharias at second and Lauren Lenentine at lead.

Jennifer Jones and team splitting up at end of the season

Team Jennifer Jones announced on Twitter on Monday that players would go their separate ways at season's end, saying "We wanted our fans and the curling community to hear it from us first that we have decided to go in different directions once the season is over.

Canadian skip Jennifer Jones, top left, and second Jocelyn Peterman, right, call on third Kaitlyn Lawes and lead Dawn McEwen to sweep as they face the team from the Russian Olympic Committee at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in February.

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The loss eliminated Kelly from the single-knockout competition, a new addition to the Season of Champions calendar.

In other Draw 1 games, top-seeded Kerri Einarson dumped Tracey Larocque 12-3, Kelsey Rocque topped Christina Black 8-6 and Selena Sturmay upset Chelsea Carey 10-6.

Canadian skip Jennifer Jones, seen above at the Beijing Olympics, won her opening match at the PointsBet Invitational on Wednesday.

Jones, Bottcher win opening games with new-look teams at PointsBet Invitational

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