Fleury’s front-end first rate

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This article was published 25/11/2021 (1604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SASKATOON — Tracy Fleury knew before she took over the wheel that her curling team had a properly aligned, high-performing front end.

Nearly four years later, the skip’s confidence level in the duo of Liz Fyfe and Kristin MacCuish is in overdrive.

“They’re just so strong, they make a lot of shots and they are amazing sweepers. They help us make a lot of shots just with their sweeping, so we’re grateful to have them,” Fleury said Thursday, after yet another triumph at the Canadian Olympic Trials.

“I had competed against them for several years and just thought it would be a good match, skill-wise and also personality-wise, so it just seemed like a good fit.”

Fyfe and MacCuish, second and lead, respectively, on the world’s No.1-ranked team, have played together for nine seasons, including the last three with Fleury. Fyfe is five years older than her sweeping sidekick and is a busy mom of two, yet the pair is tightly bound, on and off the ice.

They complement each other well, with solid communication and mutual respect. They enjoy trading barbs, even in pressure-packed situations. And they can drag that lump of granite farther, or make it curl more sharply, than it was initially willing.

“We work well together. We’ve been working on our relationship and our sweeping for so many years that now it comes natural to us,” said Fyfe. “We balance each other out in different ways and are just really proud of the way we have come together.”

They also share the benefit of strong curling bloodlines.

MacCuish is the niece of retired curler Jill Officer, who won Olympic gold in 2014 with Jennifer Jones, two world championships and six Scotties Tournament of Hearts titles.

Officer is revered as one of the world’s all-time great front-end players.

Fyfe’s father, the late Vic Peters, was a three-time Manitoba champion (1992-93 and 1997). He went on to defeat Russ Howard in the ’92 Brier final and finished third at the world championship. Peters also reached the ’97 Brier final, losing to Alberta’s Kevin Martin, and was inducted into the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame in 2005.

“They have such a passion for the game, their whole families do, so that’s contagious,” said Fleury.

Peters died in March 2016 after a five-year battle with cancer. Just a month before his passing, he cheered on his daughter in Grande Prairie, Alta., as she competed in her first Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

MacCuish notices many of his traits in her front-end partner.

“Her decisiveness is one thing. Liz is really good at throwing her opinion out there and I think that’s what we need,” said MacCuish. “And if anyone who knew Vic knows that’s how he was.”

Fyfe, MacCuish and third Selena Njegovan, with skip Kerri Einarson, won the ’16 Manitoba title but failed to repeat a year later and didn’t qualify for the ’17 Olympic Trials in Ottawa. In 2018, Einarson lost the provincial final to Darcy Robertson but slipped into the national Scotties as the wild-card team, bowing to Jones in the Canadian final.

Just weeks later, Einarson left to form another team and the remaining trio recruited Fleury, who had skipped Northern Ontario at a couple of past Scotties.

They charged forward into the next Olympic cycle, and now have Beijing clearly in sight.

“We played each other a number of times but we didn’t know Tracy on a personal level,” recalled Fyfe. “It always takes a while for new teams to mesh and gel, so the first couple of years we were getting to know each other and it’s been a lot of fun. We’ve just found we get along really well, we have a great vibe on our team and we just go with that.

“We’ve been working on this (since ’18), it’s not just this year, we’ve been building and working on our team dynamics and it feels like it’s really coming together for us this year.”

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Team coach Sherry Middaugh, who made her first of seven Scotties appearance in 1996 representing Saskatchewan, said elite teams today can’t succeed without skilled, wise front-end players.

“I don’t think the role has changed as far as the sweeping and the communication, but definitely the skill-set because back then (before) free-guard zones it was a hitting game, so you didn’t have to play the soft shots,” Middaugh said. “Now, they also have to know the strategy because they have to know what’s coming up for their shots, so it’s become a game where you need four very strong players that understand the game.”

So, how does the Fyfe-MacCuish connection stack up against today’s other dynamic duos.

“Oh, my gosh, at the top. By far,” said Middaugh. “They totally understand the game… they just get each other. I was fortunate when they played a couple of events, we had microphones and I could listen in and I was so impressed with their communication. They’re always thinking.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @WFPJasonBell