Manitoba on fire at 5-0

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This article was published 20/02/2017 (3162 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. CATHARINES, Ont. — In the afternoon, minutes after Team Manitoba pulled triumph from the brink of disaster, lead Raunora Westcott thought about why they never panicked… not even when their opponent stole three.

 

For whatever reason, Westcott explained, that’s been the story of their season. Even before skip Michelle Englot led the Granite four to a buffalo jacket, it was a grind; so it makes sense for that to continue here at Meridian Centre.

“That’s sort of how the games have been all year for us,” Westcott said. “We’ve been fighting back from deficits. We’ve had tight games, and we’ve battled hard. So it’s nothing new to us. I think that’s (Michelle’s) comfort zone.”

Now, that scrappy spirit has put them in a stunning position: tied atop the Scotties standings at 5-0, unbeaten.

Monday night, they sealed that with a stunning 8-7 comeback thriller over Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville, the 2016 Scotties finalist and top playoff contender. It was a crafty game, full of smart shots and heart-stopping surprises.

Just look at the scoreboard. McCarville took three in the fifth end, and carried a 6-2 lead into the break. That’s usually a deadly gap in hands as capable as McCarville’s — so what did Englot say to her team then, to focus?

“We said we had them right where we wanted them,” Englot joked later, as third Kate Cameron laughed along.

In fact, what the Manitobans said was “let’s get our deuce, then start stealing.” When they marched back from break, that’s exactly what they did. They snagged a deuce in six and kept marching, seizing control of the next four ends.

“This team, I’ve said, we’re resilient,” Englot said later, echoing Westcott from earlier that day. “We’ll battle back from everything. We have a never-give-up attitude, and I think that’s what you need in an event like this.”

Manitoba stole a single in the seventh, another in the eighth. All of a sudden, the game looked entirely different: when McCarville’s hammer shot in the ninth rolled out, she was stuck with a single to lead just 7-6 coming home without.

In the 10th, a break for Manitoba. Northern Ontario third Kendra Lilly missed with her first, leaving a Manitoba shot rock undisturbed; suddenly, the window for a game-winning deuce was open. Long story short: they made it happen.

“That was prime grinding,” Englot said after the game, beaming in the euphoria of the win. “We played really solid in the second half and made every shot, put every rock where we wanted it. That’s what we need to do.

The day started off well for Manitoba. In the morning, they’d earned a gutsy kind of comeback win against Newfoundland and Labrador’s Stacie Curtis, one that started with Manitoba jumping out to an early 3-0 lead.

Curtis replied by stealing a single in the fourth, and three more in the fifth to leapfrog Manitoba into a 5-3 lead.

Just like they would that evening, after the break Manitoba controlled the game. Curtis did not score again; Englot grabbed a sixth-end deuce, then orchestrated steals in each of the remaining four ends to polish off a 10-5 win.

By the way, it wasn’t only the Newfoundlanders and Manitobans who went thieving in Monday’s afternoon draw. In an odd coincidence, every sheet featured multiple robberies; there were 17 stolen ends across four games.

Consider how British Columbia’s Marla Mallett stole four from Northwest Territories’ Kerry Galusha; the Yellowknife skip, who’d opened that very game with two consecutive stolen singles, promptly scored a triple and stole three.

Next door, the clash between Quebec and Prince Edward Island featured three stolen ends, including Quebec’s grand theft triple; and Alberta’s Shannon Kleibrink gave up three consecutive stolen singles to Rachel Homan.

Team Manitoba is back in action with two big games Tuesday. The fun kicks off at 1:30 p.m. CST, when they face Alberta. At night, a critical test: in the 6:30 p.m. draw, they’ll take on Chelsea Carey and Team Canada.

 

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca