Jones headed to Scotties final; Einarson to play in semi against Nova Scotia for possible rematch

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This article was published 04/02/2018 (3116 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PENTICTON, B.C. — As she walked into the arena, Jennifer Jones hoped to give the crowd some entertainment.

But even the Manitoba champion skip might not have predicted how spectacular this show would get.

When the dust settled, Jones had withstood wild card Kerri Einarson’s ferocious 1-vs-2 Page playoff challenge. The game pushed her to the edge almost the whole way — but in the end, a 10th end deuce gave her the 9-7 win.

It was the clash of Manitoba, the Scotties top playoff game — and far and away the best show of the week.

“I thought it was a really well-played game, lots of big shots, hopefully the final will be like that tomorrow,” Jones said.

Or, as one fan, watching from the United States, tweeted: “Lost count on how many times I said WOW!”

Seriously, this match-up was at a completely different level than anything we’ve seen before, at this Scotties. It was more on-edge, more difficult to predict. Aggressive play squeezed misses and spectacular shots from both skips.

The momentum swung sharply: first to Einarson, then to Jones after she pounced on a miss to score three in the fourth end. It came back to Einarson again, and only swung back to Jones after a blood-pumping eighth end.

“I thought we played really well, and put some pressure on them,” Einarson said. “When we gave up three, that was unfortunate, I just was a little wide. But we bounced right back and got two, so I think we did really well with that.”

But seriously, this game had both the intensity and the quality of a typical final. It had a little bit of everything. Wanna see some hits? Both teams threw some bullets. More of a hankering for draws? There was some artistry there too.

In fact, one of the most breathtaking sequences in the game came in the eighth, with a trio of softer-weight shots. Jones, Einarson, then Jones again, sending one rock after the other down a perilously narrow path to the button.

A perfectly-timed late sweep finished Jones’ last rock. It tapped Einarson’s back for a deuce and a 7-6 lead.

Or look at the 10th. Einarson had her back against the wall by then — tied up, your opponent lying one, skip stones, coming home without — but it wasn’t really over until Jones, with her first, slid an exquisite draw to the foor-foot.

That rock sat down in a spot that left Einarson almost nothing to try for shot rock.

“She put it pretty perfect,” Einarson said, of that one. “If she was any higher, I could have just slashed mine.”

Jones, for her part, agreed with that assessment.

“It was in the perfect spot,” Jones said. “I’d thrown that in-turn draw a bunch of times all game. I felt like I knew it, and I just had to be in the four-foot to give ourselves a really good chance to win that game. We put it in a perfect spot.”

The biggest shame, really, was that it had to end. But maybe we’ll see them again, in Sunday’s championship final.

Now, Einarson will regroup and prepare her squad for Sunday morning’s semifinal. To get another crack at Jones, she must first get past Nova Scotia’s Mary-Anne Arsenault, who has been quietly sensational at this Scotties.

Arsenault booked her semifinal ticket on Saturday afternoon, with a 6-2 win over Northern Ontario’s Tracy Fleury.

From the start, the Nova Scotia veteran — who won five Canadian titles playing second for icon Colleen Jones — had the game on lockdown. She surged ahead with a fourth-end deuce and a three-spot in the sixth, and never let up.

The semifinal is set for 11 a.m. CST on Sunday, with the championship game set for 6 p.m. CST. The winner of the ultimate match will advance to the world championships, which will be held from March 17 to 25 in North Bay, Ont.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca