Jones team No. 1 seed heading into finals at Scotties

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This article was published 20/02/2015 (4176 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MOOSE JAW, Sask. – It’s official, Jennifer Jones and Team Manitoba are going into the playoffs at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts as the number one seed.

Jones put the finishing touches on a 10-1 record on Friday morning, putting away Alberta star Val Sweeting 10-5 in just eight ends. In 11 trips to the Canadian women’s curling championship, this is Jones’ second-best showing in the round robin, second only to her undefeated run in 2013.

Now, she’ll prepare to face Sweeting again at 7 p.m. tonight, in the 1 vs. 2 page playoff game – and because she beat Sweeting this morning, she will start tonight’s page game with hammer. The winner will book a ticket straight through to Sunday’s final: the loser will have to regroup and face either Saskatchewan’s Stefanie Lawton or Team Canada’s Rachel Homan in the Saturday semifinal.

The Manitoba foursome of Jones, third Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwen isn’t planning to take the Albertans lightly, just because they’ve beaten them already.

“Momentum in this sport is always good, but they’ve been around a long time, and they know it all starts fresh come the playoffs,” Jones said. “We have so much respect for their team, and we know we’re going to have to play their very best. It’s always more fun to maybe not play them back-to-back, just because it’s more interesting, but it’s just the way it worked out.”

Sweeting, meanwhile, had hoped to be on a roll of her own into the top 1 vs. 2 page playoff game. On Thursday, after beating Rachel Homan and locking up the playoff berth, she said that they hoped to keep the momentum coming into the playoffs. Since that plan didn’t work out, what does Sweeting think momentum means, now?

“Hopefully nothing,” Sweeting laughed, right after falling to Jones. “We closed out with two really good teams, and we knew our last three would be tough. It was tough all along, too, and we battled. We put ourselves in a good position, we can’t forget that we’re in the 1 vs. 2 game, and be proud of that.”

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Jones lost just once during the week, a surprise Wednesday morning loss against Nova Scotia’s Mary-Anne Arsenault. Jones blamed the ice then, noting that the area grew cold and the ice seemed to change. Later, it came out that she was right: one of Mosaic Place’s outside doors had been propped open, allowing the cold to spill inside.

Other than that and a few missed shots and softer games, few teams have looked as consistently dominant as Jones’ rink did. Sweeting’s team ran hot through the week, long enough to edge past Team Canada on Thursday afternoon; then as soon as they had locked up their spot in the 1 vs. 2 game, they fell hard to Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

The once-fearsome Homan rink, meanwhile, looked eminently beatable in the final draws of the round robin. After losing the heartbreaker to Sweeting, Homan fell in a shocker upset by New Brunswick’s Sylvie Robichaud, who otherwise hadn’t really made much noise this week. That put Team Canada’s playoff hopes in jeopardy, in the unenviable position of having to win their Friday morning game against Northern Ontario’s Tracy Horgan to advance to the 3 vs. 4 game.

On Friday morning, Horgan gave the two-time defending champions a run for her money. Indeed, she had a clear path to win, with the teams tied 4-4 and Horgan holding hammer in the ninth end. But Horgan’s last shot in that one came in too light, and allowed Homan a steal of two to go up 6-4. After running Horgan out of rocks in the 10th, Homan clinched the squeaker win.

So Homan will move on then, to face Stefanie Lawton in the 3 vs. 4 page playoff on Saturday at 10 a.m.

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.