Team Canada three-peats as Scotties Maritime disaster averted

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SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. -- They almost let it get away. Almost.

But in the end, Jennifer Jones and Team Canada tightened their grip on the Canadian women's curling title and refused to let anyone else snatch it away from them.

Jones, the two-time defending champion, battled back from a three-point deficit through six ends to defeat Kathy O'Rourke of Prince Edward Island 8-7 in an extra end Sunday afternoon in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts championship game.

Jones, third Cathy Overton-Clapham, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn Askin will represent Canada at the Ford world women's championship in Swift Current, Sask., March 20-28.

And they'll be back at the Scotties in 2011 as Team Canada in Charlottetown.

"We're a gutsy team. The girls played tough in the back half and made some good shots when we had to," said Jones. "We're gritty. We're not going to hand them something on a silver platter.

"To win three in a row is pretty incredible. And the way we won (Sunday), the way we came back, it's pretty awesome, I have to tell you."

Jones also won a Scotties championship in 2005, made the playoffs the next two years but didn't win again until 2008. That year, with Askin as its new lead, the foursome captured a world crown in Vernon, B.C. They followed up with a national title in '09 and retained their Canadian colours with a gutsy win Sunday -- cementing themselves as one of the greatest teams in the history of the Canadian women's game.

"It blows my mind. I can't believe it," said Jones.

The St. Vital Club team is only the third team in history to pull off the three-peat. Colleen Jones of Nova Scotia actually won four Scotties in a row (2001-04), while Saskatchewan's Vera Pezer won three straight Canadian crowns (1971-73).

"I never, ever in a million years dreamed that this would happen. But here I am standing here. And dreams come true," said Jones, 35, a corporate lawyer.

"We laugh together, we have fun together, we cry together and we play our hearts out together. And to do it with them is pretty fantastic. And I wouldn't have wanted to do this with anyone else."

Officer described being in total shock as the team received its gold medals.

"I was standing up on the podium going, 'I can't believe this' ... it's the fourth one, the third in a row. That's what I am in shock about," said Officer. "It's so awesome that this team has stuck together, we never give up and it works," she said.

The loss ended a dream run for P.E.I., which has never had a team in the Canadian women's final. And what a story it would have been had O'Rourke's team held on to win the right to defend the title on home ice in 2011.

"We couldn't finish it off but we gave it our best. It just turned out a couple of inches short in this game," said O'Rourke. "I knew when we got up with the lead that would never be enough against a great team like Jennifer Jones' team."

O'Rourke wasn't kidding about being just a few inches short. P.E.I. came out on the wrong end of two critical measurements that might have been the difference.

Team Canada spotted P.E.I. a three-point lead after six ends when Jones came up light on a draw and surrendered a steal of two.

But the skipper fired back with a solid draw for one against three yellow P.E.I. counters in the seventh. And in the eighth Carmody came up just a shade heavy on a tap-back to give up a steal of one.

Overton-Clapham said she could feel the momentum start to shift.

"It was almost like when we got the first steal, we knew we were still in it," she said. "We knew we had to dig deep, just make eight good shots every end and, hopefully, keep putting some pressure on them."

If the miscue in the eighth was damaging, a blunder in the ninth proved fatal.

Drawing against two and needing only the eight-foot, Carmody's last rock screeched to a halt several inches short, and Canada stole two more to lead 7-6.

P.E.I. settled for its one in the 10th end, and in the 11th Jones simply had to pick out a mostly open O'Rourke stone for the one with the hammer.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Linescore

Jennifer Jones (Canada) 100 200 112 0 1 -- 8

Kathy O'Rourke (P.E.I.) 002 022 000 1 X -- 7

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 8, 2010 C3