Alberta’s Carey opens Canadian women’s curling championships with trio of wins

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This article was published 21/02/2016 (3854 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GRAND PRAIRIE, – The host province was quick out of the gates at the Canadian women’s curling championship.

Chelsea Carey’s foursome out of Calgary went 3-0 on opening weekend at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Grande Prairie, Alta.

Early wins are insurance against the emotional and physical slings and arrows of an 11-game preliminary round, says the skip.

“You want to get as many wins as you can obviously,” Carey said. “The sooner you get them the better. It only gets tougher as the week goes on typically.”

Alberta downed B.C.’s Karla Thompson 8-5 and beat Stacie Curtis of Newfoundland and Labrador 6-4 on Sunday.

The Glencoe Club’s Carey, third Amy Nixon, second Jocelyn Peterman and lead Laine Peters opened with a resounding 12-5 win over defending champion Jennifer Jones the previous day.

Alberta is considered the main challenger to Jones’s bid for back-to-back titles and the sixth of her career.

With a draw remaining Sunday, Quebec’s Marie France Larouche and Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville were both 2-0.

Jones, Ontario’s Jenn Hanna, Prince Edward Island’s Suzanne Birt, New Brunswick’s Sylvie Robichaud and Manitoba’s Kerri Einarson were all 1-1.

Nova Scotia’s Jill Brothers and Saskatchewan’s Jolene Campbell finished the day 1-2, while B.C. and Newfoundland were both winless.

The top four teams at the conclusion of the preliminary round Friday advance to the Page playoff. Ties for fourth will be solved by tiebreaker games.

The winner of the Feb. 28 final represents Canada at the women’s world curling championship March 19-27 in Swift Current, Sask., and returns to next year’s Scotties in St. Catharines, Ont., as Team Canada.

The victor also gains automatic berths in this year’s Canada Cup in Brandon, Man., and the 2017 World Financial Group Continental Cup in Las Vegas.

Carey knows from hard-won previous experience the round robin at a national championship is an emotional roller coaster.

She grew up in Manitoba’s curling hothouse competing in junior and women’s provincial championships a combined 10 times.

After losing women’s finals in both 2011 and 2012, Carey skipped Manitoba at the 2014 Scotties in Montreal. Her team went 9-2 and finished third.

“We were 9-1 late in the week the last time I was here and we still almost ended up in a tiebreaker or a three-four (playoff) game, so it’s just never over,” Carey said.

She moved to Edmonton in 2014 to form a new curling team which lost the Alberta women’s final in 2015 to Val Sweeting.

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When former Canadian champion Heather Nedohin decided to take a step back from curling prior to this season, Carey replaced her on a team of experienced curlers. They prevailed over Sweeting in this year’s provincial final to earn the host berth in Grande Prairie.

Carey has deep roots in Manitoba curling, but the 31-year-old was feeling Albertan right down to her blue and gold fingernails at Revolution Place.

“To be Team Alberta in Alberta is pretty magical,” Carey said. “Obviously I’ll always be from Manitoba. It’s my original home.

“It was weird a little bit more me last year. It’s less so now because last year I chased an Alberta jacket and we lost the provincial final. You get so close you can almost taste wearing it. I didn’t win it. That made it pretty real for me, the transition.

“It’s still a little bit weird for sure. But to be the home-province team is just so cool.”