Measure twice, lose once

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/02/2012 (5161 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RED DEER, Alta. — No one in curling has ever been better or more consistent at winning the close ones in the big games.

But in the closest one ever — so close, in fact, it took not one but two measurements to determine the winner — Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones found out what it’s like to have your heart broken by an opponent at the 2012 Scotties Tournament of Hearts Saturday night.

The four-time Canadian womens champion from Winnipeg could only watch helplessly as an official with the Canadian Curling Association measured two rocks left sitting on the four-foot at the conclusion of the 11th end — and then measured them again at Manitoba’s request — to determine whether Manitoba or Alberta had the winning stone in their tied semifinal game.

The micrometer told the story — the Alberta stone was a couple-hundredths of an inch closer to the centre of the rings than Manitoba’s rock, handing Alberta’s Heather Nedohin the winning point and a 6-5 victory to the delight of a near capacity crowd at the Enmax Centrium.

The victory propelled Nedohin into today’s championship final (TSN, 2:30 p.m.) against B.C.’s Kelly Scott, while Jones and her team were punted to Sunday morning’s bronze medal game (TSN, 9:30 a.m.) against Quebec and left to wonder how it all went so wrong.

“It’s always disappointing to lose in the playoffs,” said Jones. “We’ve lost in numerous different ways. We wanted to come out and play a little bit better than we did today, but I’m really happy with how we ended the game. We put it all on the line and she had to make a great draw for the win.”

Manitoba was outplayed 87-80 as a team and lost the key matchups on the back end, with Manitoba third Kaitlyn Lawes getting outshot 86-72 by her Alberta counterpart Beth Iskiw and Jones getting outshot 90-74 by Nedohin.

The Jones season isn’t a complete write-off — they previously won a highly coveted berth in the 2013 Canadian Curling Trials in Winnipeg. But that was small consolation Saturday night.

“It’s nice to know we have that spot,” said Manitoba second Jill Officer. “But we love playing in the Scotties too. And it hurts a little that we didn’t win… And we still have a lot of work to do until then.”

With the loss, Sunday’s Canadian women’s curling championship final will be played without Jones for the first time since 2007, when she also lost the semifinal, ironically enough to Scott.

It was also Scott who defeated Jones in the Page playoff 1 vs. 2 game Friday night, advancing her B.C. team straight to the final and punting Jones to the semifinal against Alberta, which advanced to face Manitoba with a 7-4 win over Quebec earlier Saturday in the 3 vs. 4 game.

The two Manitoba losses in less than 24 hours this weekend equalled the number of losses Manitoba had during the entire 11-game round robin. And they also snapped what had been a six-game Manitoba winning streak coming into the playoffs.

History will record, however, that two of Manitoba’s four losses came to Nedohin, who was sensational in both of Alberta’s wins over Manitoba.

Nedohin shot 90 per cent in the semifinal and authored the game-winning point — although by the smallest of margins.

With Manitoba lying one rock behind cover and just biting the front of the four-foot, Nedohin drew the other side of the four-foot, but was heavy with the final rock of the game.

As the Alberta rock crossed the tee-line, Manitoba third Kaitlyn Lawes began furiously sweeping and was able to drag the stone to the back of the four-foot.

An image of the two stones that immediately flashed on the big screen at centre ice inside the arena seemed to suggest that the Manitoba stone was slightly closer to the centre.

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The Albertans said after the game that they all thought initially that they had lost the game, until the measure showed otherwise.

“Honestly, from the overhead, I didn’t think it was us,” said Nedohin. “I was in (alternate Amy Nixon’s) arms already. Amy shook her head and said, ‘I don’t think it’s us.’

“And then she goes, ‘Heather, it’s us!’ and I just jumped into her arms. And then I heard the crowd… I’m in shock right now.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca