Fleury triumphant in return

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This article was published 03/02/2022 (1492 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tracy Fleury showed very little rust in a triumphant return to action Thursday afternoon.

The 35-year-old Sudbury, Ont., skip made good on a last-rock hit to score two and lifted her East St. Paul curling team to an 8-6 win over Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts national championship in Thunder Bay, Ont.

It was Fleury’s first game at the Scotties after sitting out six days, owing to COVID-19 protocol.

Fleury’s 85 per cent shooting performance helped her team finish on top of the Pool A standings at 7-1, while McCarville dropped to 5-3. New Brunswick’s Andrea Crawford finished 6-2. All three qualified for the playoffs.

“I was a little worried heading in — I haven’t been on the ice in two weeks — and it was in the back of my head, but I’m in that situation quite a bit throughout the season so it wasn’t unfamiliar territory,” Fleury told reporters. “And I think once I did get back out there with the girls, it just really felt natural.”

In Fleury’s absence, her team was skipped to a 6-1 start by regular third Selena Njegovan. Team alternate Robyn Njegovan subbed in at third. Against McCarville, Selena returned to her customary spot, with Liz Fyfe and Kristin MacCuish on the front end.

In the late draw, Team Canada skipped by Kerri Einarson of Gimli roared back from a 5-0 deficit after the second end to topple Manitoba’s Mackenzie Zacharias, 10-7.

Einarson finished round-robin play atop Pool B with an 8-0 record.

Zacharias frittered away her big lead after Einarson scored four in the fifth and two in the seventh before the Altona skip surrendered steals of two in the ninth end and one more in the 10th to drop to 5-3 overall.

Manitoba will play Kerry Galusha (5-3) of the Northwest Territories in a tiebreaker game at 8 a.m. Friday with the winner advancing to a noon playoff game against New Brunswick’s Andrea Crawford (6-2).

In addition, Nova Scotia’s Christina Black (5-3) takes on Northern Ontario’s McCarville. The game also starts at noon.

Will facing some adversity help Team Canada in the playoffs?

“For sure, that does,” said Einarson. “We just clawed back and kept putting pressure on them and I think that definitely helps going into playoffs.

“We got off to a little bit of slow start,” said Einarson, the two-time defending champ. “We gave up that five early, but we knew there was lots of game left. We weren’t playing badly we it was just unfortunate in the second end. So, we got some rocks in some really good spots and scored that bigger end in the fifth, which I think was a big momentum switch.”

In a pivotal ninth, Zacharias purposely decided to make a hit to give up one to retain the hammer but was wide and gave up two, instead.

Einarson admitted big early leads are difficult to protect.

“It definitely is. One year we scored five early and we lost, right Selena?” she said, acknowledging former teammate Selena Njegovan who was near the interview area. Einarson lost the 2019 Manitoba final to Njegovan and Team Fleury in late January 2019, despite scoring an early five-ender. “I said that to the girls during the game, and we all laughed.”

The tournament champions will represent Canada at the 2022 worlds in Prince George, B.C., March 19-27.

Einarson and Fleury earn first-round playoff byes and won’t return to the ice until Friday night.

Fleury was effusive in her praise of what her teammates accomplished in her absence.

“They were unreal, and it was great that they had a few TV games so I could watch closely and see what they were up to,” said Fleury. “I’m just so proud of them.

“The way that they stepped into different roles they made it look easy and they were just really supporting each other out there. And Selena, with having not very much skipping experience, just made it look easy and she looks so comfortable out there and Robyn in her first Scotties, just thrown into the third position, and she was absolutely amazing.”

Fleury said she used a mostly hands-off approach.

“I phoned in for the team debriefs but I didn’t want to get in the way too much because they were obviously on such a roll and they had really found their groove,” she said. “Selena just has a really natural talent for strategy anyways, so she makes smart calls out there, so I wasn’t too worried about it.”

Selena Njegovan admitted the new role took her out of her comfort zone.

“Surprisingly, I did enjoy it,” she said. “I haven’t skipped in like 10 years. I was a little nervous going in but like Tracy said, the girls were so supportive this whole week and they really believed in me the whole time. So, I a lot of fun but I’m happy to be back at third.”

mike.sawatzky@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @sawa14