Jones sputters in opening game

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This article was published 15/02/2020 (2286 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MOOSE JAW, Sask. — Well, at least there’s this much to say about Jennifer Jones’s first official game of the 2020 Scotties: it’s out of the way, now. In the rear-view mirror. Over and done with, and with lots of time to look forward.

On Saturday night, just one day after an emotional victory in the last-chance wild-card game, Jones opened her round robin by skidding to a 9-6 loss under Ontario champ Rachel Homan. The game started off well for Jones’s crew, with a first-end deuce, but a fifth-end Homan steal of three knocked the wind out of their sails.

“It was just a couple of shots,” Jones said, with a disappointed shrug. “I thought we started the game OK. I missed a bad (shot) in four and then (the fifth end) got away from us. But all in all, we’re happy where we’re at. You’re going to lose a couple along the way. It’s nice not to lose the first one, but we’re okay.”

After beating fellow Manitoban Tracy Fleury in the Friday night wild-card match, it was “hard to get to sleep,” Jones said. But she didn’t think that the adrenaline rush of that game accounted for the Saturday letdown. While the team made mistakes in Saturday’s game, Jones vowed to fix them.

Homan said she was pleased with how her team handled the pressure the Jones rink did bring.

“We’re really proud we were able to come out opening game and play as well as we did,” Homan said. “I’m really happy with that. But they’re a great team and they’re going to be there at the end of the week, for sure.”

The silver lining for Jones is that now she can move on with the biggest challenge in the preliminary rounds behind her. The group is filled out by British Columbia rookie Corryn Brown, Nova Scotia veteran Mary-Anne Arsenault and Newfoundland’s Erica Curtis, as well as rinks from Yukon, Northwest Territories and Prince Edward Island.

Jones and company will continue their maple leaf hunt today with two games: an 8:30 a.m. game against Yukon’s Hailey Birnie, and a 6:30 p.m. battle against Team B.C.

Also in the Saturday evening draw, Manitoba’s Kerri Einarson opened her Scotties with a cruising 9-4 win against Quebec rookie Noémie Verreault. Quebec had a good start, wielding first hammer for a deuce, but Manitoba took control after that: after a second-end force, Einarson stole three straight deuces to seize the game.

It was Einarson’s first spin down the Scotties ice at Mosaic Place, and her initial impression was glowing.

“It’s amazing,” Einarson said of the venue. “Everything is set up really well and it’s been really good. The ice is good, the speed’s great and it held up right through. So really liking the ice, feeling really comfortable.”

The buffalo gals have just one game today, in the morning draw against Nunavut’s Lori Eddy.

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In Eddy, a remarkable story. The skip, who lives in Ontario and hosts popular curling podcast 2 Girls and a Game, made her Scotties debut in 1997, playing vice for Alison Goring. That team went all the way to the final, but lost to legend Sandra Schmirler.

Now, with her return trip 23 years later, Eddy earned a quirky place in the Scotties history books as holding the second-longest period between appearances. (The top spot belongs to Nova Scotia’s Margaret Cutcliffe, who marked 30 years between her 1987 and 2017 appearances.)

The 2020 Scotties Tournament of Hearts runs through Feb. 23. On Thursday, the top four teams in each round robin pool will move into the championship round, where they will battle the other pool’s top four. The four teams with best overall records will move into next weekend’s playoffs.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Melissa Martin
Reporter-at-large

Melissa Martin reports and opines for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Every piece of reporting Melissa produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.