Manitoba claims bronze at Scotties

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This article was published 09/02/2014 (4458 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL, Que. – In front of a few thousand fans, the lens of TSN and the prime minister, Manitoba skip Chelsea Carey and her team ended their Scotties on a bittersweet winning note.

On Sunday afternoon, Carey, third Kristy McDonald, second Kristen Foster and lead Lindsay Titheridge rallied from their heartwrenching Saturday night semifinal loss to claim the Scotties’ bronze medal in a 7-3 win over Saskatchewan’s Stefanie Lawton.

The game came down to the final end, with Manitoba ahead 4-3 but Lawton holding the last rock in the 10th. But Carey and her teammates pounced on a flash from Saskatchewan second Sherri Singler, crowded the house with red rocks, and picked up a winning three-point steal when Lawton’s final rock — a tricky attempted angle-raise — couldn’t get the job done.

So in the end, the Manitobans finish on the podium, though not where they hoped to be.

“The disappointment doesn’t go away,” Carey said minutes after wrapping up the win, acknowledging it was tough to get up for the game. “Podium finish is good at our first Scotties… come back and battled today. I’m so proud of the girls for hanging in there.”

It wasn’t until after the game that Carey and her teammates learned that Prime Minister Stephen Harper had watched them play. Harper stayed through the full 10 ends, watching the game from the arena’s red, wooden seats. According to Scotties organizers, it was the first time Harper had attended the national women’s curling championship, though he has previously made appearances at the Brier men’s championship.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca