Jones simply dominant in pair of shutouts

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/01/2017 (3478 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the hours away from the ice, Jennifer Jones and her team rest. They hang out at Kaitlyn Lawes’ house. The third’s mom, Jones said, “spoils us rotten.” They play with the skip’s second daughter, Skyla, who was born in August.

Then they zip up their jackets, all business. They head back to the Eric Coy Arena. They blow the competition away.

To be certain, it isn’t surprising Jones stood 4-0 at the halfway mark of the 2017 Manitoba Scotties round robin. What is notable, even for the reigning Olympic champion, is the sheer level of dominance she has so far displayed.

Consider Thursday, Jones, Lawes, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwen delivered two consecutive 10-0 thumpings: first to Thompson’s Jennifer Briscoe, then to veteran East St. Paul skip Colleen Kilgallen.

That’s 20 unanswered points, in one single day. Through four actual games, Jones has played slightly less than 2.5 full games’ worth of ends. Usually, even lower-ranked opponents will squeeze a few singles in there, or something.

“(Consecutive shutouts) doesn’t happen very often, especially at a high-level event,” Jones acknowledged after the afternoon win. “It was one of those days where everything was going our way, and hopefully that continues.”

It seems as if it would be easy for Jones, in the early games against low-ranked teams, to take her foot off the gas or her finger off the trigger. It seems as if it’d be easy for the skip to let her focus drift a bit or call the game looser.

When asked, Jones shook her head. She gets asked that a lot, she added; in a way, the question even gets asked may explain something about what divides casual curlers (reporters included) and champions.

“I’ve never met a curling game that I don’t want to win,” Jones said, simply.

The opponents felt that drive firsthand. Against Briscoe, then Kilgallen, Team Jones pounced on mistakes over and over. They clogged up the house, leaving few scoring shots open. They choked off options until none were left.

It’s remarkable to watch; one can look away for half an end then look back to a raging sea of Jones-coloured rocks.

“I felt like we were playing a whole new calibre of team,” said Briscoe, who made her Manitoba Scotties debut last year. “They just make every single shot, so if you miss anything, you’re done. They’re going to capitalize on that.”

There are no hard feelings, in any event. As a teen curler, Briscoe was a big Jones fan; in 2005, Briscoe flew to Scotland to watch Jones make her first world championship run. Briscoe was 18. It was her first overseas trip.

“I was curling back then, so the dream was always there to play against her,” Briscoe said.

For Kilgallen, the experience feels a little different. She’s played against Jones since they were teenagers; this being a close-knit sport,the mother of Jones’ second, Officer, was one of Kilgallen’s junior coaches. She also salutes Jones’ aggression.

“They’re trying to get all the information they can out of the sheet they’re on, the rocks they’re using,” Kilgallen said. “They’re very professional. They’re looking forward to what’s coming next for them, and I admire that about them.

“They have a goal, and I respect that,” she added. “They’re not letting their foot off the gas, and I don’t blame them.”

For Jones, though, who has her sights set on what would be her eighth Manitoba championship, the road is about to get tougher. After steamrolling the lower seeds, stronger teams are coming off; then, most likely, the playoffs.

So the competition is about to get tighter. With that in mind, would it have been better for Jones to be pushed a little more in the first half of the round robin? To settle into playing on the knife’s edge in this provincial battle?

“I don’t think it matters too much,” Jones said. “We put pretty high standards on ourselves. Even though we won one game (on Day 1), we didn’t like how we performed in it, so I thought we picked it up better today.”

Next year: Killarney

Next year, the top women’s curlers in Manitoba will converge on the cosy community of Killarney.

On Thursday afternoon, Curl Manitoba unveiled Killarney’s Shamrock Centre as the site of the 2018 Manitoba Scotties. The community last played host to the event in 2010, which Curl Manitoba said was a “great success.”

“We had told the community we’d be back whenever they wanted us,” Curl Manitoba director Craig Baker said in a statement. “This timing works well for both Killarney and Curl Manitoba.”

The 2018 Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts is set to run from Jan. 10 to 14. That’s a bit earlier than usual, as curling championships adjust their schedules to avoid conflict with the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca