Carey train still rolling

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This article was published 06/02/2014 (4455 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL — Well, that didn’t take long. Chelsea Carey is a Scotties record-holder already, though you won’t find the Manitoba skip celebrating.

During the afternoon draw Wednesday, Carey’s foursome thumped Quebec’s last-place Allison Ross 15-3, a massive tally that tied the record for points scored in a game since the championship became the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in 1982. The scoreboard, obviously, looked a little gaudy. Carey’s rink scored three in the first end, three in the third, then stole four, one and another single in three consecutive ends.

Usually, that would bring on handshakes long before the eighth end, but the Scotties mandates teams play at least a full eight.

“That’s not fun for anybody, it’s just not great,” Carey said after the game. “They were great sports about it. We just tried to use it as sort of a practice, get rock placement and precision… as much as you almost want them to score, you want to make your shots.”

On that end, Carey praised the Quebec team for their fab seventh-end deuce. It was also a game that got fifth Breanne Meakin into the action, as they swapped her in for lead Lindsay Titheridge to give the alternate a chance to throw some draw weight.

“If she ever had to come in, we want her to have some touch,” the skip said.

At any rate, the awkward competitive gap in that game aside, the fifth day of the Scotties round robin was another productive one for the Manitobans — they won both their games. The evening match was much more of a nail-biter, an 8-4 win over New Brunswick’s Andrea Crawford that saw the teams trade ninth-end mistakes. Up 5-3, Carey missed her final draw. But Crawford’s hammer throw crashed into a guard to take away her chance at a deuce and stick her with a single instead.

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Carey wrapped up the match with the hammer coming home, though she got a chance to make a beauty. Facing two of Crawford’s jammed-up rocks — they threatened to give New Brunswick a game-winning steal of two — the Manitoban skip threw a slick double kill for the win.

“I didn’t want to have to throw a shot like that, but once you make it it’s fun,” Carey said with a laugh. “It was a scary one, but felt good to make it.”

With that, the Manitobans rose to 7-1 on the week, tied for second place with Saskatchewan’s Stefanie Lawton, who has only lost to Carey’s rink thus far. Above them in the standings is defending Canadian champion Rachel Homan, who is now undefeated through eight games and curling rockets all week. Rounding out the top four is Alberta’s Val Sweeting at 6-3.

Team Manitoba plays Ontario’s Allison Flaxey — best known in Manitoba as one-time Manitoba junior champion Allison Nimik — in the afternoon today, before facing Sweeting tonight. They wrap up the round robin Friday morning with a game against Prince Edward Island’s Kim Dolan.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Melissa Martin
Reporter-at-large

Melissa Martin reports and opines for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Every piece of reporting Melissa produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.