The match so nice, they’ll play it twice

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This article was published 19/02/2015 (4083 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MOOSE JAW, Sask. — One last morning game to play, and then Jennifer Jones will stand just two wins away from her fifth Canadian championship.

The Manitoba skip doesn’t even need to beat Alberta hotshot Val Sweeting when they meet at 9 a.m. Friday in their last round-robin tilt. All that game means is whoever wins will get last rock when Jones and Sweeting face each other again at 7 p.m. in the 1 vs. 2 Page playoff game.

That’s right, the two hottest teams in this tournament will face each other twice Friday, after locking up their coveted top-two berths on Thursday.

Meanwhile, two-time defending Canadian champion Rachel Homan will have to fight for her playoff life Friday morning, after a nightmare two-loss day.

On Thursday afternoon, Team Homan fell in a tense 7-6 tilt to Sweeting, a thrilling show that came down to the final Sweeting stone. But Homan’s evening game was the kicker: there, New Brunswick’s Sylvie Robichaud pulled off a stunning 6-5 upset, drawing for a game-winning deuce on a tricky final draw.

With the loss, Homan and her Ottawa foursome fell to 6-4 on the week — tied with Northern Ontario’s Julie Horgan, who she’ll play this morning. There is no chance of a tiebreaker: whoever wins that battle of Ontarians will move on to face Saskatchewan’s Stefanie Lawton in the 3 vs. 4 playoff game.

It was a wild day of play at Mosaic Place, starting when Sweeting’s win over Homan guaranteed no team would be able to catch Sweeting or Jones atop the pack.

“We knew what that game meant for us, playoff-wise,” Sweeting said, after knocking Homan back. “Regardless, we had to just park that and focus on the game. It almost got away from us. We have to stay strong now, momentum’s good going into the playoffs.”

That plan didn’t pan out quite the way she’d hoped. In Thursday’s evening draw, Sweeting was trounced 9-1 by Saskatchewan’s Stefanie Lawton, who was pressing to clinch a pass to the 3 vs. 4 page game. Sweeting struggled mightily in their match, shooting just 54 per cent, while Lawton was almost perfect with her rocks.

When Homan lost, that meant Lawton had a lock on a playoff spot, no matter what the outcome of her final game against P.E.I. this morning.

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It’s a huge opportunity for Northern Ontario’s Horgan. She’s a former Ontario champion who came into this Scotties the long way around, having to beat teams from Yukon and Northwest Territories to earn a spot on the tournament’s main draw.

Meanwhile, Jones had plenty of time to rest up on Thursday night — though the team wasn’t at all tired, she explained — and get ready for her two matches against Sweeting. For the Manitobans, it’s a familiar spot — Jones hasn’t missed the playoffs in any of her 11 Scotties trips.

“Experience is a part of you,” she said. “I always say you don’t need experience to win, but experience definitely helps. It helps you calm your nerves, it helps you understand how everything is going to unfold and happen.”

The Manitobans secured their spot with a pair of comfy wins, including a 10-3 rout of P.E.I. and a 6-3 victory over Northern Ontario, and the help from Sweeting.

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.