Finally… a sign of weakness

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This article was published 24/01/2015 (4122 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINKLER — Kerri Einarson did not win a bye to the Manitoba Scotties final on Saturday night, but she did what no other skip this week has done.

For a few ends in the 1 vs. 1 Page playoff game, Einarson made Jennifer Jones look beatable. In this Scotties, that’s no easy feat.

True, the reigning Olympic champions won the game 9-6, clamping down in front of a pleased crowd at Winkler Arena. But Einarson and her East. St Paul team scored more against Jones than any of seven other opponents managed in the round robin; and unlike most of those, they played right on into the 10th end. (Well, the teams had to go that deep since the game was on TV, but the score would have warranted it alone.)

“It was a little bit back and forth, but we felt like we had control of the game,” Jones said, before striding off to sign autographs for a line of wide-eyed kids. “We were happy with three up coming home against a really good team. We’re really happy with that result.”

It was a frothy sort of game, wobbling between gutsy hits and groaner misses. In the fourth end, Jones missed on both of her shots; the second one, a planned takeout, flashed straight through the house. The sold-out crowd moaned, while Einarson pounced on the miss (and a heroic brushing effort from second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish) to draw for a deuce, and cut Jones’ lead to 5-4 after four.

But Jones, third Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwen never really lost control. In the fifth, the St. Vital Curling Club foursome set up a crafty end and snagged two; in the sixth, Einarson’s attempted blank backfired when her hammer bounced into the house. She would grab a another single in eight — a Jones miss gave her a chance for more, but Einarson couldn’t clinch them — and it was just too late to close the gap further.

The teams shook in 10 after Jones ran Einarson out of rocks. “We just got down, and it’s hard to defend against that,” Einarson said, though she did have some ideas for a rematch. “We just gotta be sharper. We have to control that front, because they were controlling that. We were having a hard time getting in there.”

She may get the chance to give that plan a whirl. While Jones will be waiting in today’s 4 p.m. final, Einarson will face Assiniboine Memorial’s Barb Spencer in the 11:30 a.m. Sunday semi. Both games will be televised live on Sportsnet, and Einarson is hungry for another shot at Jones.

“I want it bad,” she said, with a grin.

Spencer, meanwhile, advanced to the semi after a thrilling 2 vs. 2 Page playoff against Granite’s Kristy McDonald. Spencer had allowed McDonald to steal one in the ninth end, giving the Granite skip a 7-6 lead but handing Spencer the hammer coming home. She could only find a single there to force the extra end.

There, Spencer choked up the routes to the button, and McDonald’s hammer shot wrecked to hand Spencer a steal, and an 8-7 win just before 11:30 p.m.

This much is certain: Whether Einarson or Spencer advances to face Jones in the final, they will have a heck of a time trying to topple the golden four.

Two hours before the 1 vs. 1 game, members of the media gathered in a booth above the arena floor to choose the Scotties’ all-star team. There was really no debate, and the votes were unanimous: McEwen, Officer, Lawes, Jones. It was the first time at provincials that a whole team was anointed together.

That’s no shade on any of the other competitors. It’s just that through the week, the Jones team were not just great, but flat-out dominant. Even more, they made it look easy, rarely missing a shot and leaving competitors little to work with. On Friday night, in a top-billing match against Barb Spencer, Jones opened the game with a deuce, then made steals the next three ends in a row: She’d finish that game having stolen six of her 10 points. Spencer only scored one in the whole game.

Indeed, of the 65 points Jones scored in seven round robin games on the week, 36 of them — well over half — were stolen. She stole at least one end in every game she played in, and against the top challengers in her group she stole at least three: Three against Michelle Montford, four against Spencer, four against Darcy Robertson (who never found a single point against her, and shook at a 9-0 disadvantage after five ends).

Now, Jones will roll right on to the brink of her seventh Manitoba championship. Just one win away.

“It was our goal at the beginning of the week to be in the final, so it’s all we can ask for,” the skip said. “We just want to come out, and be as sharp as we can be, and hopefully we have a great 10 ends.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca