Three ex-teammates get shot at Scotties end game

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This article was published 05/02/2010 (5953 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont — The reunion of former Manitoba junior teammates Jennifer Jones, Jill Thurston and Kelly Scott continues here as all three have skipped teams into the 2010 Scotties Tournament of Hearts playoffs.

But they’ll take paths of varying degrees of difficulty and distance to win the Canadian women’s curling title.

Jones’ Team Canada crew from Winnipeg finished with an 8-3 round-robin record Thursday and has the shortest route — two victories to grab a third-straight Scotties championship.

She’s in the 1 vs. 2 Page playoff game tonight, at 6:30 p.m CST against Prince Edward Island.

Jones beat Ontario’s Krista McCarville 6-5 Thursday night in a televised nail-biter to vault into a first-place tie with astonishing P.E.I. But Kathy O’Rourke’s team gets first place and the benefit of last rock tonight based on an earlier victory over Team Canada.

Thurston, representing Manitoba, and Scott, a former Winnipegger skipping British Columbia, both won critical games Thursday night to finish 7-4.

Scott was awarded third place because she was closest to the button on a tiebreaker challenge earlier in the event. Scott advances to Saturday’s 3 vs. 4 playoff game at noon CST. She needs three wins this weekend to capture a third career Scotties crown.

That leaves Thurston and McCarville, also 7-4, in a sudden-death tiebreaker today at 2 p.m. CST. Neither has won a Scotties championship, and it will take four wins this weekend to do it.

"The goal was to make the playoffs, and whether it’s a tiebreaker or not, it’s still the playoffs," Thurston said. "Now it’s a whole new bonspiel and we just have to go out and play well."

Because of a tough 9-6 loss to New Brunswick on Thursday afternoon, Manitoba had to beat Quebec 10-4 on Thursday night.

"That’s how we play well… when our backs are against the wall," said Thurston, who is joined on the Deer Lodge team by third Kristen Phillips, second Leslie Wilson and lead Raunora Westcott. "We knew we had to win this game to stay in it, and we came out firing."

Jones, with third Cathy Overton-Clapham, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn Askin, made no mistakes Thursday, posting a pair of impressive wins, hammering Nova Scotia 11-4 in the afternoon, then edging McCarville before nearly 3,600 fans at the Essar Centre, easily the largest crowd of the week.

McCarville flashed with her last rock as she tried to knock out a nearly fully buried Canada counter.

Jones said the battle with P.E.I. won’t be easy.

"They’re just playing with no fear," she said. "But we’ll go out and play tough. We’ve been there before and experience always helps."

B.C., meanwhile, defeated Newfoundland-Labrador 8-2 in its final game to creep into the tiebreaker.

"We really had a good day, with team dynamics, chemisty and solid play," Scott said. "I think we are ramping it up at the exact perfect time."

The Scotties semifinal is scheduled for Saturday night at 6 p.m. CST, and the championship game goes Sunday at 1:30 p.m. CST.

The winner advances to the Ford world women’s championship in Swift Current, Sask., March 20-28.

Backed by a pair of 21-year-olds throwing the last four rocks, P.E.I. is having a remarkable run.

They defeated Newfoundland-Labrador 9-5 in the morning, but fell 10-5 to a desperate B.C. squad in an afternoon clash that really had little meaning for O’Rourke and crew.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

top within reach for mccarville C3