Fleury front and centre

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/11/2021 (1554 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SASKATOON — Tracy Fleury has been a stealth bomber the last few seasons but can no longer soar undetected, now that she’s armed with a glorious opportunity to qualify for the Olympics.

Fleury and her East St. Paul teammates — third Selena Njegovan, second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish — will play Sunday morning for right to represent Canada at the 2022 Winter Games.

The Fleury foursome took down a pair of enemies Thursday at SaskTel Centre to raise its record to a perfect 7-0 at the Canadian Olympic Trials and, in doing so, landed a spot in Sunday’s 11 a.m final.

“It’s a big goal accomplished, getting into the playoffs, and knowing we’re in the final. It’s really exciting,” Fleury, 35, said Thursday night. She lives in Sudbury, Ont., but connected with the Manitoba crew in 2018. “A lot of excitement for us but a lot of nervousness as well, so we’re just happy for the outcome.”

Incredibly, Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones (5-2) will curl in Saturday’s semifinal at 2 p.m., while two-time defending Scotties national champion Kerri Einarson of Gimli (4-3) can join her with an afternoon victory Friday over Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque.

That would make it a Manitoba sweep, guaranteeing the buffalo goes to Beijing.

“That’s all you think about at the start of the week, that you want to be in the playoffs. So, that’s exciting,” said Jones, who captured gold at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. She’s supported by third Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jocelyn Peterman and lead Dawn McEwen.

Jones lost 7-5 to Rachel Homan of Ottawa earlier in the day. But Einarson eliminated Homan on the evening draw with a 7-6 triumph, as a throng of supporters of the Interlake squad partied in the stands.

An Einarson loss to Rocque, however, could created a tie-breaker situation for third place between Einarson, Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay, Laura Walker of Edmonton and Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alta.

“For sure, we’re in control of our own destiny and that’s where we want to be. We don’t want to leave it to anyone else to help us out,” said Einarson, who has Edmonton’s Val Sweeting at third, Shannon Birchard at second and lead Briane Meilleur. “We just have to keep doing our thing and building on what we’ve been doing.

Fleury earned an 11-7 victory over Walker in the early draw and then kept an unblemished, round-robin record intact with a 10-3 blowout win over Scheidegger at night to finish atop the nine-team round-robin standings.

“I have goose bumps right now,” said Njegovan. “Obviously, when we put this team together our goal was to make it to the Olympics, and to be one step away from that is pretty amazing. We’ve worked so hard over these past four season and we’re super excited that it’s paid off so far.

“I hope we have one more game in us.”

Fleury joined the team to begin the four-year Olympic cycle and has taken it to the heights of the women’s game — and the curling world has watched with intrigue.

It’s big, big news. Headline-grabbing stuff. Yet, Fleury would prefer people talk about someone else — anyone else, for that matter.

“We just feel like we just slide under the radar despite our ranking and we’re OK with that,” said the soft-spoken, congenial athlete. “We don’t like a whole lot of attention, anyways, so we’re fine with that.”

“We’re used to being the underdogs. We like being the underdogs.”

Trouble is, they’ve built a sensational 37-5 record this season, qualifying in five events while winning three (including the Grand Slam tour’s Masters), and have ascended to No.1 spot of the World Curling Federation’s rankings, ahead of such notables as Anna Hasselborg of Sweden, Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland and Manitoba rivals Jones and Einarson.

Underdogs? No chance. Fleury’s pack is best in show at the Trials, under the bright lights of the Saskatoon arena. And the skip has the fighting spirit of a pitbull.

“For sure, she’s a killer on the inside,” MacCuish acknowledged.

McCarville (4-4) created all sorts of problems for herself with a 9-5 defeat to Walker. Now, both teams are 3-4 and at the mercy of Rocque.

Rocque (2-5) is out of the playoff picture — along with Homan and Jacqueline Harrison of Dundas, Ont. — but can drop Einarson a rung on the ladder. That would give McCarville and Walker new life, if each wins Friday.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell