Einarson draws picturesque win

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This article was published 02/02/2020 (2232 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RIVERS — Kerri Einarson got a lot of things wrong in the Manitoba women’s championship final. There were the draws that were too heavy, or too light, or the hit that missed by a mile. In fact, none of the skip’s first four shots bore more than a passing resemblance to what she’d originally wanted.

Then, at the end, there was just one shot she needed to get right. She was perfect then, when it counted, and thanks to that moment — and help from Jennifer Jones, her opponent — Einarson is, for the second time in her life and first since 2016, the new Manitoba champion.

What felt even sweeter is that this is the first time she’s won the jacket with her second-year team of third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Briane Meilleur. Last year, they’d gone to the final in Einarson’s hometown of Gimli, where she lost a heartbreaker to her former teammates behind Tracy Fleury.

So yeah, to come back and get it done in Rivers, in front of a slew of her family and friends and her twin daughters, was a redemption. More than that, it was a validation of all they had done these last two seasons.

“It means so much,” Einarson said, her face bright with tears after the 8-6 win. “I really wanted to do this for my teammates. We’ve been through a lot. Val’s been through a lot in her curling career. We really wanted this one, and we really buckled down and made the shots when they really counted.”

Even Einarson seemed slightly stunned that she survived Sunday’s strange final, a topsy-turvy clash with longtime rival Jones. It was not a pretty game. It was not particularly well-curled. It featured four steals, three changes of lead and more mistakes than are quickly counted.

Einarson finished with a rough 65 per cent shooting percentage. Despite starting the game stronger, Jones didn’t finish much better at 68.

“There was lots of ups and downs and highs and lows in that game,” Einarson said. “But we just kept our composure, and just relaxed and kept going through the motions and being patient.”

Right off the top Einarson stumbled, handing Jones a steal of two in the first end. They struggled to generate much momentum, trading singles back and forth; after Jones made a blazing hit in the fifth to undo some Einarson pressure, all Jones needed to do was make an open draw to the eight-foot to score one.

The draw missed, badly, coming in far too light. Einarson stole three, and was suddenly vaulted into the lead. At that moment, Sweeting recalled turning to her teammates and saying the one thing that was on the minds of everyone watching: “what just happened?”

It was far from over. Coming back from the break, Jones collected a single and then a stolen deuce to retake the lead; Einarson managed a deuce of her own in the ninth to inch 7-6 over Jones, but it meant coming home without hammer.

‘We really wanted this one, and we really buckled down and made the shots when they really counted’– Kerri Einarson

For a long time, in the 10th, a big Jones score looked almost inevitable.

With her last, Einarson had one last chance: a careful draw, threaded on just the right path through a port, at just the right weight to slip on top of the button.

“We had a really good idea of what (the draw) would do,” Sweeting said, of putting down the broom on Einarson’s pivotal shot. “I said, let’s just put it in here and make her throw, and that’s all we can do.’ That’s what we did, and caught a bit of a break.”

Jones, who had been lying four before that draw, still had a shot to win, an angle hit that would knock Einarson’s shot rock; in a stunning miss, her hammer throw wrecked on a guard.

“It’s pretty disappointing,” Jones said. “We had a really good end going. She made a really good draw on her last one. Just unfortunate, but it was a great game.”

This is a new type of jacket for Sweeting, a former Alberta champion, but it feels a lot like home: she grew up in Maryfield, Sask., which is about 20 minutes from Virden. She came into Brandon a lot as a youngster, so in a way winning here is sort of her home turf.

Meanwhile, the road isn’t over for Jones, who had advanced to the championship game with a steady semifinal over Tracy Fleury. In fact, they’ll have to play that one all over again, as Jones chases what would be her seventh Canadian title.

Since 2018, the national championships have included a last-chance wild card game, played between the two top-ranked teams in Canada who haven’t won a regional title. This year, it just so happened that Fleury, Einarson and Jones came into the battle for Manitoba ranked one, two and three in the nation.

So all three teams knew a playoff loss meant they’d get the gang back together in 12 days and try again. That did seem to change the tone somewhat, compared to the usual aftermath of a competitive semifinal: just minutes after dropping the semi, Fleury vice Selena Njegovan was all smiles as she paused to chat with a young fan.

Of course, she said with a good-natured shrug, she was really disappointed, but the team didn’t want to let the loss impact them moving forward. They are, after all, still just one win away from getting onto the national Scotties draw. And there, just like this week in Rivers, there won’t be much room to survive a mistake.

So no, Team Fleury wasn’t reeling too hard. They knew it wouldn’t be easy, it wasn’t, and they’ll keep on keepin’ on.

“It was a good week,” Njegovan said. “We played well, we battled hard all week, and we ran into a hot Jones today, a hot Einarson yesterday (in the championship round). You never know what’s going to happen. The teams are so good here, it’s really whoever gets hot this week is going to win.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca