Team Canada finding its touch

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/02/2016 (3825 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. — Jennifer Jones held steady, Chelsea Carey pulled it out, and Manitoba’s Kerri Einarson saw one slip away on a couple of tough shots.

Now, with three days done at Revolution Place, the playoff picture at this Scotties Tournament of Hearts isn’t any clearer than it was on opening day — in fact, it’s far more blurred.

Consider the evening tilt between Einarson and Saskatchewan champion Jolene Campbell. The squads are similar in so many ways, both first-time Scotties skips with a bag full of shots, backed by talented young teams. They hadn’t played each other before, some wondered how they would match up, well — awfully close, it turned out.

The main difference is in this one, Campbell had a sharper touch. The teams were tied 1-1 in the fourth, when Einarson’s last shot picked; that left Campbell a straightforward draw for three. In the next frame, Einarson’s shot for one stopped short, which handed the gals in green a steal of one.

Manitoba rebounded with a sixth-end deuce to narrow the gap, and the teams traded singles after that. Campbell threw 92 per cent in the game and nailed a slick double to seal a ninth-end deuce and shut down Einarson’s comeback hopes. The 8-4 final score stalled Manitoba at 2-2 on the week, and lifted Saskatchewan to 3-2.

“We just have to go out there and play strong,” Einarson said. “We played good, but she was making everything. It’s hard to beat a skip like that.”

On the sheet next door the Jones team, stung by a late loss on Sunday to Northern Ontario, recovered with a 6-4 win against Newfoundland’s Stacie Curtis. It was a notably conservative game, as the defending Canadian champion picked up a third-end deuce and a pile of singles. It wasn’t dramatic, but they were always in control.

“We know what we need to do, and it was just about making shots at the right times,” Jones said. “We missed a couple late in the game yesterday that hurt us, and didn’t want that to happen again… I thought we played really solid, and never were in trouble giving up multiple points and controlled the game.”

Meanwhile, Alberta’s Chelsea Carey claimed a 10th-end deuce to narrowly survive a challenge from Prince Edward Island’s Suzanne Birt, winning 5-4 to stay unbeaten.

Also on Monday, Nova Scotia’s Jill Brothers beat both British Columbia and Ontario’s Jenn Hanna to rise to 3-2, while Hanna slipped to 1-3. Interestingly, Brothers is one of the lowest-shooting skips so far this week, and her Halifax team’s 78 per cent is the third-lowest in the field; they’ve still been rolling with big wins.

The afternoon draw saw a battle of the undefeated skips, as Carey took on Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville, who also opened her Scotties with three straight wins. The Albertans came out in top in that one, taking a tight 9-8 win to keep their record unblemished. McCarville heads into today sitting at 3-1 on the week.

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Rounding out the standings are Quebec’s Marie-France Larouche at 2-2, and New Brunswick’s Sylvie Robichaud and British Columbia’s Karla Thompson, who are both 1-3.

Coming up at Revolution Place on the fourth day of play: Einarson and Team Manitoba will play Quebec at 9:30 a.m. CST, and will face Newfoundland in the evening draw. Jones will take on New Brunswick in the morning, and Saskatchewan at 7:30 p.m. CST. Each draw is being broadcast live on TSN.

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.