Women’s playdowns wide open

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This article was published 20/01/2025 (480 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Small town. Big stakes.

The Manitoba women’s provincial curling championship slides into the hamlet of Pilot Mound this week to settle who will wear the Buffalo jacket at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts next month in Thunder Bay, Ont.

With a population of approximately 675, Pilot Mound, about 90 minutes south of Brandon, is the smallest community to host a Manitoba men’s or women’s championship event.

There will be 12 teams in contention when the action begins Wednesday, and, unlike last year when wild-card teams could qualify based on their ranking, only one rink — the champion — will have earned a berth to the Scottie’s when things wrap up at the Pilot Mound Millennium Recreation Complex on Sunday.

The Manitoba playdowns will be without some household names.

Jennifer Jones won’t be there, as the legend remains retired from four-person curling. Her rink, now led by Chelsea Carey, won’t make the trip either.

In fact, Carey was never supposed to play this week, being one of three teams to pre-qualify for the national championship. Team Carey lost its spot earlier this month, however, when third Karlee Burgess left for Kerri Einarson’s team. Curling Canada’s rules do not allow a team to maintain its pre-qualification if fewer than three players return from the previous year (Jones, Burgess).

Einarson’s Gimli-based squad and Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg were the other two to secure a spot in the Scotties and will not play in this week’s event either.

That might leave a field with fewer heavyweights playing for a provincial title, but make no mistake, competing to represent Manitoba will have the same lustre it always has.

“We definitely are hearing that Manitoba is wide open this year, there’s no big star,” said Beth Peterson, who will skip the No. 2 seed in Pilot Mound.

“We played in a provincials where we had Chelsea Carey, Jennifer Jones, Kerri Einarson, Tracy Fleury… and, yeah, they bring all the top names and that’s great, but I think what it’s allowing is other people can see that there is a lot more talent in Manitoba than just the big names.”

Peterson’s Assiniboine-based team, ranked No. 6 in the country, is only seeded lower than Kate Cameron’s No. 8-ranked Granite team this week. No. 21 Kristy Watling of East St. Paul and No. 27 Lisa McLeod of Pembina round out the top four seeds.

“It’s not like we’re nobodies, right, but it allows us to show there are other teams, we’ve just had a tough story of teams we’ve had to play all those years. So, you’ll hear people say that, but that doesn’t affect us in any way. We know what we are, and we know where we belong and everything.”

Peterson’s rink, which includes third Kelsey Calvert, second Katherine Remillard and lead Melissa Gordon Kurz, returns for its second provincial tournament together after finishing runner-up to Team Lawes last year. Narrowly losing a berth to the second Scotties of her career didn’t sit well with the Winnipeg skip for some time — she still hasn’t watched the game back because it “stings too much” — but she believes her team is better because of it.

“It was not as simple as just flushing it, that’s for sure. Yeah, it sticks with you, obviously. You’re a couple of shots away, and those shots haunt you in your dreams at night for weeks to come after, but you take it as a learning experience,” she said.

Peterson enters the provincial tournament thrilled with the way her team has overcome adversity this season. Two of her teammates — Calvert and Remillard — have played while pregnant, and Peterson broke her wrist in the second event of the season after tripping on the hack as she threw her rock.

That hasn’t stopped them from winning the Manitoba Curling Tour Championship and reaching the final in a pair of MCT events.

Peterson said she’s especially pleased with the way her team has defeated some of the top competition in the province this season, which they were unable to do consistently in the past.

“I always felt like, man, we cannot beat those teams, like, we cannot get one of those wins, and it kind of starts to bring you down a little bit or just make you question,” she said. “But having those wins under the belt kind of gives us that confidence (that) we can play with the top people just playing our game. We don’t need to do anything spectacular, just play our game, and those wins will come.”

Meanwhile, Cameron’s foursome will look vastly different than last year. Taylor McDonald, who played second, has slid to third, while newcomer Alli Flaxey will fill in on the front end with usual lead Mackenzie Elias.

The veteran Flaxey, who skipped her team to the Ontario provincial championship in 2014, was called to fill in for Brianna Cullens, who is in her first year with the team.

“Alli joining us has kind of brought some positivity into our team and kind of reminded us of what roles are ours and what we need to do and what’s our primary focus,” Cameron said.

Cameron said she was willing to sacrifice results to focus on building the team’s dynamic and technical training as they brought a new player into the mix.

They wound up playing more than they anticipated, and their competitions have primarily come out of province, earning a pair of finals appearances in Alberta and three third-place finishes, including at the New Year Curling in Miyota event in Japan, earlier this month.

“I think overall we have met what our priority was. And looking back, I think we’re pretty happy with our results,” Cameron said.

Cameron won the Manitoba title in 2017 while playing third for Michelle Englot. She’s also won the Alberta crown twice as a third for Laura Walker.

She said that she doesn’t usually think about her past success anymore but can always remember the feeling of winning a provincial championship. She’s still looking for her first crown as a skip, and is hopeful that will come this week.

“I think ultimately it just comes down to who can play the best come the playoffs, and I’ve been fortunate enough to be on the winning side of that a few times. It feels great. I think there’s nothing like it, winning your provincial to get to the Scotties, it’s just extra special.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca