Einarson’s escapade provides year’s best drama

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/12/2020 (2056 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Remember earlier this year when that (insert bad word here) curling rock — that yellow, gutless hunk of granite — just kept running, refusing to stop and be counted?

Shannon Birchard certainly does.

Her skip, Kerri Einarson, was drawing against a couple of mostly buried red stones, owned and operated by Ontario’s Rachel Homan, in the 10th end of the Scotties national championship in Moose Jaw, Sask., in late February.

A sizable nibble of the four-foot would have given the Gimli squad the Canadian title, however, the stone skidded past its intended target and the titans from Ottawa stole a pair to knot the score 7-7 and force an extra end.

“When Kerri let go of the rock, we (she and fellow front-ender Briane Meilleur) thought it might be close if she got the curl into the middle. But it really hung out there in what we call the good stuff where it’s still a bit keener and it really didn’t get into the middle where the ice starts to fudge,” Birchard recalls. “It just never curled up enough and so it didn’t slow down.

“About halfway down we kind of figured that out and were just praying it would stop.”

So, too, was the demonstrative thrower.

A TSN camera operator took direct aim at Einarson during the rock’s journey, documenting her own raw, emotional odyssey — from the cusp of jubilation to searing dejection to a stoic resolve to return to work.

“You can see it all on her face. She doesn’t know if she’s going to be celebrating a few seconds later or if she’s going to an extra end,” Birchard says. “She definitely pulled herself together like a true champion, because it would be difficult for anyone to do what she did and have to throw pretty much the same shot in the 11th.”

Gathering herself, Einarson shared a short but impactful pep talk with her crew — Winnipeggers Birchard and Meilleur and third Val Sweeting of Edmonton — embracing the hammer in the extra end and delivering a precise, championship-winning draw to the button for an 8-7 triumph.

“If anyone told us we’d have the hammer in the extra end before the game even started, we’d take that situation 10 out of 10 times,” Birchard says. “We were really confident that Kerri could shake it off and make that shot. You can really see her emotions on the ice, she doesn’t hide them, and I think that’s super endearing. But she is truly a master at controlling herself when she misses to a point where she can pick herself up and make the next one right away.”

It goes without saying the bulk of the year in curling has been historically crummy, demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence. However, there were some wonderful moments from the initial months of 2020.

Before the COVID-19 health crisis. Before the women’s world championship was scrubbed March 12, with the Manitobans already settled in Prince George, B.C.

Before the concoction of return-to-play guidelines for all Canadian curling facilities that featured significant changes on sweeping, standing and, ultimately, surrendering to an opponent (handshakes are a no-no).

Before the proverbial padlock was snapped shut on Manitoba clubs in November, and later in other parts of the country.

I was sitting with two other Winnipeg-based scribes at a restaurant in Toronto (a stopping point on a Winnipeg Jets’ road trip) and watching the drama unfold on a big screen, finally hearing venerable broadcaster Vic Rauter exclaim, “Canada, say hello to your new champions from Manitoba!”

Of all the notable stuff that occurred within weeks of each other last winter, Einarson’s thrilling victory — two years after a loss to Jennifer Jones in the Canadian final led to a complete overhaul of her team — is decisively my Manitoba curling highlight of the year.

I mean no disrespect to either Altona’s Mackenzie Zacharias or Winnipeg’s Jacques Gauthier, who joined forces on a clean sweep for the province at the world junior championships in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, also in February.

Family, friends and clubmates gathered at Assiniboine Memorial on a Friday night to witness the Gauthier team, rounded out by third Jordan Peters, second Brayden Payette and lead Zachary Bilawka post a 7-2 decision over Switzerland’s Marco Hösli in the junior men’s final.

Later, in the wee hours of the morning, Zacharias, with third Karlee Burgess, second Emily Zacharias and lead Lauren Lenentine, defeated Min-Ji Kim of South Korea 7-5 to claim the women’s title.

It marked the first time two Manitoban teams had won world junior gold in the same year. Einarson completed the Manitoba hat trick, of sorts, at the Scotties the next day in ‘the Jaw’.

Closer to home, perennial contender Jason Gunnlaugson finally hit pay dirt at the provincial men’s championship, guiding his Morris-based team to a 7-4 victory over defending champion Mike McEwen in the Viterra final Feb. 9 at Eric Coy Arena in Charleswood to earn a spot at the Brier in Kingston, Ont.

McEwen slipped in by way of the wild-card game on the eve of the week-long Canadian championship.

Neither Manitoba foursomes cracked the Brier’s final four, although Gunnlaugson delivered one of the finest shots of the week, a ‘Hail Mary’ double-runback, double-takeout to score three in the 10th end for an improbable 9-8 win over Prince Edward Island’s Bryan Cochrane during round-robin play.

The man they call Gunner, with third Adam Casey of Charlottetown, new second Matt Wozniak and lead Connor Njegovan, has been handed a do-over. On Monday, Curl Manitoba pulled the pin on the 2021 provincial men’s, women’s and mixed-doubles championships, owing to the continued threat of the pandemic, so, the reigning champ will head to the Brier in early March in a bubble setup in Calgary.

Prior to that, Einarson will go to the Scotties as Team Canada, while 2020 provincial runner-up Jones will represent the buffalo inside the bubble, in late February.

Manitoba continues to operate under code red restrictions and will do so well into the new year, so there’s no guarantee curlers will even throw at home before heading to what I’m affectionately calling Rockfest ’21.

It’s a safe bet a shining moment or two for Manitoba could be generated out west.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell