Jones rink curling by the numbers

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This article was published 14/01/2018 (3058 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

KILLARNEY, Man. — Three numbers could add another page to Jennifer Jones’ storied career. Three numbers to ease the ache of a season she hoped would return her to the Olympics, but carried her back to Manitoba instead.

One. Eight. Thirteen.

Which is to say: one win is all that stands between Jones and the 2018 Manitoba women’s curling championship. If she wins this year’s buffalo jacket, it will be her eighth. And she would wear that jacket to her 13th national Scotties.

That’s something, after all that’s happened. So on Saturday night, after Jones put the final nail in a 9-5 Page playoff win over Kerri Einarson, she thought about what it would mean to add to her herd of buffalo, and battle for Canada.

“It’s exciting,” Jones said. “We’ve had a couple of losses that hurt the heart a little bit over the last month. It would be nice to get back to the Scotties. It’s one of our favourite events, and I just love my girls, and like playing with them.”

And maybe that showed, in the 1-vs-1 Page game. It was a familiar match-up between the Manitoba hotshots, and for a hot minute it looked as if Einarson might give Jones a run for her money; that sense would evaporate quickly.

In the first end, holding the hammer, Einarson dotted the house with yellow rocks. That’s when Jones third Kaitlyn Lawes pulled the trigger on a vicious triple takeout, clearing out all of Einarson’s counters. That wasn’t the only time, either.

“Kaitlyn got them out of a lot of trouble in some ends,” Einarson agreed.

Einarson eventually blanked the first, and had to settle for a single after her hammer draw in eight stopped short.

The East St. Paul team stole one in the second, to hop out to a 2-0 lead; but it never felt too settled. Jones replied with a deuce in the third, then promptly followed it with a fourth-end steal of two to tighten her grip on the game.

After that, Jones settled into the lead and kept Einarson at bay.

“It just changed the momentum a little bit,” Jones said of that key steal. “We were just kind of chasing a little bit early, but from then on we never really looked back.”

Jones stole another deuce in the 10th, though that’s no judgment on Einarson’s final shot. The East St. Paul skip wound up for what would have been a jaw-dropper hit, a gutsy quadruple takeout for two that also had to stick.

Well, she didn’t quite make it. But she did strike all four of Jones’ rocks, and the shooter stuck; a bold attempt.

It was Einarson’s first loss at Shamrock Centre, after she rolled 7-0 through the round robin. Now, Einarson and her team of third Selena Kaatz, second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish had a night ahead to wonder: what gives?

Here’s a daunting figure: 17 times, Einarson has tried to beat Jones, and 17 times she has faltered. She’s defeated other superstars, no problem: in 10 tries, for instance, she’s thrice dispatched titan Rachel Homan.

Yet, even after a stellar week for Einarson, Jones remains her toughest hurdle. What will it take, to beat her?

“I don’t know,” Einarson said, with a quiet laugh. “I feel like I’ve tried everything. We just need to be firing on all fours, and I don’t think we were today… all of us need to play really well… so if we can do that, we should come out on top.”

The good news, for Einarson: she may get another shot at Jones, here at Shamrock Centre. With the 1-vs-1 loss in the rear-view mirror, she turned her attention to Sunday morning’s semifinal, where she will face Darcy Robertson.

Robertson, the 2017 finalist, booked her berth in the semifinal when she edged Joelle Brown 9-7 in the 2-vs-2 game.

It was a topsy-turvy tilt. Consider this: Robertson held a 7-3 lead by the fifth-end break, and yet the game wound up in an extra end. Brown, a veteran out of Charleswood Curling Club, made three straight steals to tie it in the 10th.

Afterwards, Robertson acknowledged that it wasn’t their finest performance; when they face Einarson in the semi, she said, “we want to put a better effort forward.” But hey, there are no points awarded for style; only for wins.

“We pulled it out, and that’s all that counts right now,” Robertson said. “We were up and then we started trying to peel… and then I missed a few shots that could have put us ahead by quite a bit.”

The game also had some historic implications. It was Robertson’s 169th game at a Manitoba Scotties, tying her with sister, Barb Spencer, for the most provincial games of all time. With her semifinal berth, she will start a new record.

If she can beat Einarson to advance to the final, she will tie Spencer’s record for career provincial wins.

Before the first playoff rocks flew, Curl Manitoba announced the week’s all-star team.

Einarson was named the week’s top skip, in recognition of her unbeaten record. Brown third and 11-time provincial competitor Susan Baleja, Jones second Jill Officer and Robertson lead Theresa Cannon rounded out the honours. The 2018 Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts wraps up today. The semifinal is set for 8:30 a.m., with the championship game to follow at 2:30 p.m. Both matches will be broadcast live on Sportsnet.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca