Close, but Ontario has a bit extra

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This article was published 27/02/2017 (3344 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. CATHARINES, Ont. — The way it ended won’t be forgotten.

This Scotties will be one curling fans talk about for a long time: an extra end, a championship dangling in balance, tension as thick as London fog.

When the final rock landed, Rachel Homan had clawed past Michelle Englot and Team Manitoba, just barely.

The final score: 8-6 in 11 ends. It only got that far because Homan threw a white-knuckle lifesaver in the 10th, a double that took away Englot’s chance for a game-winning three. That’s how close Manitoba was to a Maple Leaf. 

“That’s a tough sport, right there,” Homan said, still trembling with relief moments after her game-winning hit. “That was a battle. That’s an unbelievable win by my team. That’s the hardest win we’ve ever fought for, I think.”

It was always going to be a tall order to beat Homan, her gaze laser-focused on winning her third Canadian title. That Team Manitoba had already done it twice in two nights was testament to their sensational week at Meridian Centre.

Sunday night, they came so close to making it a third time. They can say they gave it their best: they took the top-ranked women’s curler in the world right to the edge and until the very end, the game was within reach. 

“It was an incredible game,” Englot said. “We took her to last rock and made her make a tough shot, so I’m really proud of my team… a couple of shots here and there and it could have been a totally different game.” 

In contrast to their previous two meetings, where Manitoba came out hot, this time the Granite four started soft. They hoped to swing first-end hammer for some damage. But while aiming for a blank, Englot’s last shot stuck for a single. 

Right away, Homan pounced. In the second end, the Ottawa skip aimed for the sky and the big risk paid off. Her hammer shot ricocheted halfway across the house to complete a double kill for three and a 3-1 lead. 

The next three ends were cagey. Homan held Englot to a single in the third. In the fifth, Englot buried a silky draw to the back four-foot. It counted when Homan’s draw came up short; a steal for Manitoba, now tied 3-3.

In the seventh, another break for Manitoba. Homan lined up a takeout that might have scored four and put the game away. But the shot crashed against a guard, handing Manitoba another steal and a 4-3 lead. 

It also set up one of the most heart-stopping finishes fans have recently seen. It was not be the finish Englot, third Kate Cameron — who was superb this week — second Leslie Wilson and lead Raunora Westcott wanted. 

Yet it is also one they can be proud of, as they load up for what comes next. Because although they won’t be going to the 2017 worlds in Beijing, this story isn’t over. 

“It was an incredible run,” Englot said. “We battled back. We gave up the three early, but we battled back. We’re going to be a force next year.” 

‘It was an incredible run. We battled back. We gave up the three early, but we battled back’– Michelle Englot 

When Cameron, Wilson and Westcott recruited Englot last year, their goal was to reach the Olympic trials. Landing in the Scotties final has likely given them enough Canadian ranking points to clinch a berth for the trials in December. 

There’s also this: they beat Jennifer Jones to get here; they beat Homan twice to get to the end. As a foursome, they’ve now tested their mettle against Canada’s best on the biggest stages and showed they can win.

“This has been an awesome building year for us,” Westcott said. “We know that we can be at trials. We know we can have a good showing there. It reinforces we’re not just a team that is middle of the pack. We can be at the top.”

They weren’t the only Manitobans to hit the podium. Earlier in the day, Chelsea Carey — the 2014 Manitoba champion, who moved to Alberta and won the 2016 Scotties — claimed the bronze medal in an afternoon game. 

Carey lost her chance to defend her title in the 3-vs-4 Page playoff when she fell in an 8-1 flop to Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville. But she outmanoeuvred McCarville in their bronze-medal rematch, winning 7-4. 

After the game, Carey’s veteran third, Amy Nixon, formally announced her retirement from curling.

“I knew for sure today, when I walked out, that would be my last Scotties game as a core member,” she told a media scrum. “To do it with the maple leaf on my back is very, very special.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca