Now that’s entertainment

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This article was published 17/02/2015 (4112 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MOOSE JAW, Sask. — The only shame of the game, really, was that it had to end. That one of Jennifer Jones or Rachel Homan had to lose, and the other had to win.

This time, when the clash of the curling titans was over and the last rock of the extra end came to a halt, the golden Manitoba foursome stood on top.

If Team Manitoba and Homan’s Team Canada meet in the playoffs at this 2015 Scotties Tournament of Hearts — and as the round robin soldiers on, it looks ever more likely they might — the outcome could be different. But on Monday night, this is how the inch went, Jones, third Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwen wrung a 8-7 victory from a tight and wildly entertaining game, and stretched their undefeated streak to five straight.

“It’s great to win games like that, and having to make some big draws to win games,” Jones said, seconds after settling a draw right on the button to clinch the tilt. “It was a big win for us tonight, but we have, I don’t even know how many games left. We’ve got a lot. It’s just one more win, and we have a lot more winning to do.”

Of the 3,000 people that flooded into Mosaic Place on Monday night, among the only ones who hadn’t been waiting for the matchup were the ones on the sheet. After practice on Friday, Lawes shrugged she hadn’t looked that far ahead on the schedule. Maybe she was just saying that, you’d think — but on Sunday night, the skip herself blinked when asked how she was preparing for the tough draw ahead. “Not even sure who we play, to be honest,” Jones politely said.

So that’s how the best curlers in the world handle these looming pressures, then, just one match at a time.

But for the fans who have filled this arena all week, the game was circled in the program, and gossiped over in the Patch. “That Team Canada-Manitoba game, wooooooph,” one volunteer said on Monday, as he drove towards the rink. “That’s gonna be a good one. It’s not often that you see curling that good here in Moose Jaw.” It had a story: the golden Olympians versus the two-time defending Canadian champions. It had weight: a rematch of the 2013 Scotties final, and a possible preview of the 2015 tournament’s ultimate game. Most of all, it had a ton of talent, and promised a hell of a game.

Coming into Monday night, both teams were curling sharp. McEwen and Team Canada’s Lisa Weagle were neck-and-neck for most accurate lead in the tournament to that point; likewise Officer and Team Canada’s Joanne Courtney. At 83 per cent through her first four games, Lawes was outshooting Canada’s Emma Miskew, while Homan and Jones were tied at 82 per cent through their first four games.

Jones had a shaky game in her first outing on Saturday, but beat Ontario’s Julie Hastings anyway; Homan wobbled a little against Hastings on Sunday night, but didn’t drop the ball. In their earlier games on Monday, both stood tall: Jones rode a five-point steal to a 9-3 win over Team Newfoundland-Labrador, while Homan and her rink had no trouble handling Team B.C. in the afternoon.

Then came the big one, and it lived up to all the hype. It was expertly constructed, often magnificently played — though there were enough doozies to keep it open.

There were the delicate moments: The soft touch of Homan’s last shot of the first end, a draw that flowed like poetry to nestle up beside the button. It would steal the Canada skip a point, when Jones’ last shot crashed.

There was drama too, as in Manitoba third Kaitlyn Lawes’ second shot of the very next end. It wasn’t a firecracker, didn’t need to be: Just a perfectly-weighted little bump that surgically removed one of Homan’s rocks from the middle of the house. That left Jones laying two, and with the hammer the Manitoban skip would feather a third one in there to leapfrog into a 3-1 lead.

Heartbreak? Yeah, there was plenty of that too, and perhaps the biggest came in the ninth end. The score was jammed at six apiece then, but Jones held the hammer. She had a chance to make a double takeout there for three, which would all but win the game. Instead, her shooter knocked just one rock out, then rolled to the outer edge of the rings. Jones walked away with a lonely single, and Homan held the hammer coming home.

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“Two is big, I just probably should have drawn for two,” she said, with a bit of a self-effacing smile. “It was kind of one that you want back, but we can’t, and we found a way to win.”

Yeah, they did. In the 10th end, Jones forced Homan to a single in part through her first shot, a gutsy hit-and-roll; despite a few bobbles in the extra, her final winning draw was perfect. (Despite this, she finished with 69 per cent shooting percentage, her lowest of the tournament.)

An athlete will always tell you every game is tough, and every opponent can beat you. A reporter will tell you that Manitoba’s draw looks much less demanding through most of the rest of the week: They have just one game today, a 2 p.m. match against Quebec’s Lauren Mann (1-4).

Indeed, the Manitobans won’t face another playoff favourite until the final draw on Friday morning, when they’ll square off against 2014 Scotties finalist Val Sweeting of Alberta, who has been hot this week.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Melissa Martin
Reporter-at-large

Melissa Martin reports and opines for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Every piece of reporting Melissa produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.