Manitoba in Scotties final, but who it will be yet to be decided

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This article was published 03/02/2018 (3106 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PENTICTON, B.C. — The winner has been decided, not a person but a province, and its name is Manitoba.

That was the hot topic at Scotties on Friday and Saturday, even before the flesh-and-blood, human playoff winners had been decided. The glow of pride in the first two rounds rubbed off most on the whole region, as a collective.

The Scotties’ Heart Chart newspaper, on Saturday’s front page: “MIGHTY MANITOBA.”

A Scotties volunteer to a Winnipeg reporter, while leaving the arena: “How incredible for you.”

Yeah, it is, especially since nothing quite like this has happened before.

Kerri Einarson, Jennifer Jones. Two Manitoba champions (Einarson is a wild card here). They are profoundly different curlers: one, a titan in the waning years of her career, the other an East St. Paul firecracker hungry to displace her.

So when they finished first (Einarson) and second (Jones) atop the standings, clinching spots in Saturday night’s 1-vs-2 Page playoff and guaranteeing a Manitoban in the championship final, it felt surprising — but also familiar.

This has never happened, in the 23-year history of the Scotties’ Page playoff system.

Of course, curling is peppered with ex-Manitobans. Jones ran into Kelly Scott a couple of times, in the 1-vs-2; but by then Scott, a 1995 Manitoba and national junior champion, was curling out of British Columbia, so this is different.

 

In an email from the men’s provincials in Winkler, Curl Manitoba executive Craig Baker said he was “delighted” by the result, calling it a “testimony to the level of curling” in the province — and subtly referring to more in the pipeline.

“Jennifer Jones and her team are one of the great teams in Canadian and world curling history and they show no signs of slowing down,” Baker wrote. “Kerri Einarson’s team is one of several heirs apparent.”

At press time, we didn’t know which one would win the Page, and head to today’s 6 p.m. CST final. We knew whoever lost would reload to face Nova Scotia veteran Mary-Anne Arsenault in today’s semifinal.

After that, who knows? Einarson and Jones could meet again, at the end. What a story that would be for home.

So there will be a lot to say about Manitoba curling’s past and future, when this is done.

There is the story of how it took Kerri Einarson 18 tries to beat Jennifer Jones, a milestone she reached in this round robin, and how she would now have to do it at least once more in the same week to win a Canadian championship.

Or, there’s the tale of Jones third Shannon Birchard, filling in for Olympic-bound Kaitlyn Lawes. She’s been sensational in her rookie Scotties, shooting 87 per cent and generally fitting Team Jones’ style like a glove.

Amongst thirds, her shotmaking prowess was second only amongst to Alberta’s Cary-Anne McTaggart.

That performance landed Birchard on the tournament’s second all-star team, along with Northern Ontario skip Tracy Fleury, Alberta second Jessie Scheidegger and another Manitoban, Team Canada lead Raunora Westcott.

The first all-star team? That was all the rest of Team Jones, including the skip, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwen, as well as Alberta third McTaggart. (All-star teams are determined solely by shotmaking percentage.)

 

Saskatchewan skip Sherry Anderson was honoured with the 2018 Scotties’ Marj Mitchell Sportsmanship Award, which is voted by players. A sign of how respected Anderson is around this sport: this was her fourth such honour.

 

•••

Whether it was to be Jones or Einarson, whoever landed in Sunday morning’s semifinal had a tough challenge.

No doubt, Mary-Anne Arsenault has been the most underrated contender at this Scotties. While much of the hype was focused on the top seeds, the former Colleen Jones second quietly put together a rock-solid campaign.

Both Jones and Einarson beat Arsenault in the round-robin; those were Arsenault’s only losses this week.

The Halifax team’s strength was obvious on Saturday afternoon, when they snuffed Northern Ontario’s Fleury 6-2.

It wasn’t a particularly thrilling match. Nova Scotia, holding hammer, blanked the first three ends; Arsenault found her deuce in the fourth, held Fleury to a force in the fifth, then capitalized on a Fleury miss to score a three-spot.

Fleury couldn’t generate much of a response. In the eighth, a perfect double-kill by Nova Scotia third Christine Black cleared out Fleury’s hopes for a deuce or better; she just never really had a chance to get back in the game.

 

 

•••

It might have been three Manitoba-based teams in playoffs, if Michelle Englot’s Team Canada didn’t run out of steam.

So, one last salute to Englot, third Kate Cameron, second Leslie Wilson and lead Raunora Westcott. They couldn’t regain the magic of their thrilling run to the 2017 Scotties final, but still, they’ve been a joy to follow the last two years.

When they shook on a 10-4 loss to Jones on Friday night, it was likely the last Scotties game of Englot’s career.

The 54-year-old skip has done a lot here, over the years: she won eight Saskatchewan championships, one Manitoba jacket, and arrived here as the runner-up Team Canada after Rachel Homan won the Olympic trials.

And some of those achievements started two years ago, when she got a call from Westcott and Wilson. The team was looking for a skip to take over; Kristy McDonald had retired after falling to Einarson in the 2016 Manitoba final.

Now, she’ll get to hang up her sliders and relax for a bit, in retirement.

“It’s been such a ride,” Englot said on Friday night. “It’s been an incredible two years, and the best decision of my life was to play with them. It’s been great to end my career this way.”

For Cameron, the youngest member of the team at just 26 years old, playing behind McDonald and now Englot has been a valuable learning experience. While Englot may be calling it a career, Cameron’s is no doubt just beginning.

“They both taught me so much about the game, and different aspects of the game,” Cameron said. “Michelle’s taught me so much about patience, and when to go forward and when not to, and how to relax a little bit out there.”

The three Manitoban players don’t yet know what the future holds, for their curling careers. Before joining what was then McDonald’s team, Cameron was a hotshot skip in her own right; could we see her in the captain’s seat again?

 

“It’s definitely something that I see myself doing in the future,” she said. “I’m just not sure it’s that near in the future.”

 

 

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca