Einarson bests Manitoba rival Carey at Scotties

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/02/2016 (3814 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. — If anyone was tempted to count Kerri Einarson out at the 2016 Scotties, the lesson of Day 5 was never to count Kerri Einarson out. On the brink in the standings and facing her steepest competition of the week, the Manitoba champion exploded to two straight wins over leaders Chelsea Carey of Alberta (7-2 in the standings), and Krista McCarville of Northern Ontario (5-3). Einarson is now also 5-3 on the week, in a dead heat for one of four playoff spots.

So what went right for the Manitoba champs on Day 5? “We just got our draw weight,” Einarson said. “Now that we found it, hopefully we can keep it.”

To get there, she had to ride a wild first half at night. The Manitobans surged up early, replying to Northern Ontario’s first-end single by racking up three of their own. In the third end, Einarson threw a pretty angle raise to sit above the button; McCarville’s hammer shot bounced off and rolled out for a steal of one.

What the ice giveth, it taketh away. An Einarson miss in the fourth end allowed McCarville to draw in for four and suddenly leapfrog to a 5-4 lead. In the fifth, Einarson’s first failed to make its way around a Northern Ontario yellow and sat wide open and waiting to be removed; she ended up settling for a single.

But the Manitobans weren’t about to let their strong start go for naught. After blanking the seventh, Einarson set the eight up to cuddle three red counters around the button, leaping back into the lead at 8-6. It went to the wire: McCarville successfully blanked the ninth and almost tied it up with her 10th-end hammer.

That throw went wrong almost from the start, and the shooter slid out the house to leave Einarson with an 9-6 win. And just like that, Einarson was in third place. “I don’t know if I really believe in making a statement, but I know we’ve brought up our game,” Einarson said. “I know we had to, to play these top teams. We have to bring them down to where we are. These two games were huge today to come out and all four of us play really good games.”

With just four draws left to go, the standings in Grande Prairie remained about as clear as a brick window. This is an unusually jammed-up Scotties for this late in the week, with a pile of teams still in contention for playoff spots: no fewer than nine teams have four losses or fewer, and tiebreakers are looming in the distance. Einarson still has three more games to play, starting this afternoon when she faces Jennifer Jones for the first time since the 2015 Manitoba final. She will follow that up by taking on Prince Edward Island’s Suzanne Birt, then wrap her debut Scotties round robin Friday versus last-place New Brunswick.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Thursdays

Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter.

Sign up for Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Speaking of the defending Canadian champion, Jones was also two for two Wednesday, as she handled Nova Scotia’s Jill Brothers (5-4) in the afternoon and Quebec’s Marie-France Larouche (4-4) in the evening draw. That launched Team Canada up to 6-2 on the week, just behind Carey for first place but with one game still in hand.

The Quebec match was relatively comfortable for Jones, who followed a second-end deuce with a steal of three to build what would become a 10-3 win in just eight ends.

“It’s nice to see that we managed to put some good shots together early, and got an early lead,” Jones said. “We never really were in jeopardy of giving up a big end. I’m happy with how we played tonight, but we have a big day tomorrow.”

Now, they just have to focus on bringing it home. After playing Einarson today at 2:30 p.m. CST, Jones will take a trip down memory lane in the 7:30 p.m. draw. There, she will take on Ontario’s Jenn Hanna (4-4) for the first time since they met in the famous 2005 Scotties final.

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.