The 57-year-old, who has won 14 Grand Slam of Curling (GSOC) tournaments as a skip, shot a game-high 94 per cent during an 8-6 victory over Team Peter de Cruz of Switzerland at the Gallagher Centre.

It followed a 4-1 win over Team Niklas Edin of Sweden yesterday and a 7-3 triumph at the expense of Scotland’s Team Ross Paterson earlier today.

"You just want to get a win under your belt and we did," Howard said.

"We got our first win just to keep ourselves alive.

"We had a great day, actually the last three games we've played really well. 

"That was a little shaky in spots, but I thought we really stepped it up for those last two and just what we really needed to do.

"I love it, that was a wild game and it's so much fun to be out there. 

"A couple of goofy shots here and a couple of unbelievable shots, but fun to play and obviously when you win, it makes it that much better."

The Canadian Open is the lone GSOC event to use the triple knockout format, where teams must win three games before they lose three games in order to advance to the quarter-finals.

Each loss drops teams to a lower bracket until they are eliminated. 

Two A-qualifiers, three B-qualifiers and three C-qualifiers reach the quarter-finals in both men's and women's divisions.

Team Yannick Schwaller of Switzerland and Team Bruce Mouat of Scotland also advanced out of the C-qualifiers with 3-2 records. 

In today's last session, Team Schwaller stunned reigning champions Team Kevin Koe 7-4, while Mouat shaded home-province favourites Team Matt Dunstone 4-3.

Team Brad Jacobs and Team Brad Gushue went undefeated through the triple knockout to qualify at 3-0, while Team John Epping, Team Mike McEwen and Team Korey Dropkin of the United States moved on through the B-qualifiers at 3-1.

Tomorrow's men’s quarter-finals pit Jacobs against Howard, Gushue against Schwaller, Epping against Mouat and McEwen against Dropkin.

Before them, there are the women's C-finals, featuring Scotland's Team Eve Muirhead versus Team Kim Min-ji of South Korea, Team Chelsea Carey versus Japan's Team Satsuki Fujisawa and Team Silvana Tirinzoni versus Team Elena Stern in an all-Swiss battle.

Team Kerri Einarson and Team Nina Roth of the US were the A-qualifiers at 3-0, while Team Jennifer Jones, Team Anna Hasselborg of Sweden and Team Alina Kovaleva of Russia made it through the B-event with 3-1 records.