Jones defeats Einarson to become Canadian champion for record-tying sixth time

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This article was published 04/02/2018 (2982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PENTICTON, B.C. — There were no words for it, really. No words for the feeling of standing atop curling history, especially not when you’ve only been there for two minutes, and only gotten there after 10 white-knuckled ends.

Or maybe there was one word, and it spoke clearly enough.

“It’s just mindboggling,” Jennifer Jones said.

Sounds about right. On Sunday night, the Manitoba titan defeated East St. Paul’s Kerri Einarson 8-6 in an emotional Scotties final. That clinched Jones’ sixth Canadian championship, and tied Nova Scotia icon Colleen Jones’ record.

“I honestly can’t even believe it,” Jones said. “I remember vividly my first Scotties, thinking if I never get back, all my dreams will have come true. Then we won one. Now we’ve won six, and I feel like the luckiest person in the world.”

It was the sixth title too for longtime second Jill Officer, and the fifth for lead Dawn McEwen. To think that, when Officer and Jones started playing together as kids, and teamed up again 15 years ago, it would lift them to this.

“This is ridiculous, it’s ridiculous,” Officer said, wiping tears from her eyes — and finding a familiar word.

“I can’t believe we just tied Colleen’s record. This is just mindboggling to me right now.”

For 23-year-old Shannon Birchard, filling in at this Scotties for Olympic-bound third Kaitlyn Lawes, it was a first. To think, just weeks ago Jones drubbed Birchard’s own team at provincials; now, they’ve won a maple leaf together.

“I’m speechless, this is something I’ve been dreaming of for so long,” Birchard said, her whole face aglow in the light of the win. “I’m so unbelievably grateful to these women for allowing me to come along with them.”

Before that euphoria, they had to survive another onslaught from Einarson’s rink, which includes third Selena Kaatz, second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish. Later, Jones would pick one word for it: “nervewracking.”

They knew it would be, going in. Manitoba and curling are both small worlds, and so too was this match-up: Birchard was playing two former junior teammates in Kaatz and MacCuish, the latter of whom is also Jill Officer’s niece.

(That is partly why the ending was such an emotional rollercoaster for the Jones second: “(Kristin’s) got a bright future, she’s such a good kid, and I love her to death,” Officer said. “I’m so proud of her… so I have mixed feelings.”)

And of course, these two teams had such a long history already, including in games that meant everything.

The first time they met in a championship final was three years ago, at the 2015 provincials in Winkler. Einarson, usually so full of fire, played timid against Jones; she fell 5-2. (Jones beat her in the top Page playoff there, too.)

So much has changed, since then. It’s true that, until they met in the round robin this week, Einarson had never beaten Jones; after yet another loss to the 2014 Olympians in this year’s provincial 1-vs-1, she even laughed.

“I feel like I’ve tried everything,” she said then, with a self-effacing smile and a little shake of the head.

Here, something changed. It was as if, having accepted the fact of Jones’s imminent winning, Einarson was free at last to just play the game: when they faced each other in the 1-vs-2 Page, Einarson was ferocious, and nearly won.

Of the two, that first playoff meeting proved to be the sharper, more wildly entertaining game. The final was more cautious; neither team made each other pay as much for their mistakes, as they had just one night before.

But for awhile, Einarson seemed firmly in control. Jones is usually deadly when starting with hammer, but Einarson defused her, holding her to a force in the very first end. Then her wild card team replied with a deuce in the second.

They forced Jones again in the third, and picked up a single in the fourth, after Jones helped to contain some damage. In the fifth, Einarson picked up a steal and a 4-2 lead when Jones flubbed a double attempt for a blank.

But in the sixth, Jones came out and bit down on the game.

“We definitely struggled early in the first five,” Jones said. “We thought, if we could just get two points back… so the sixth end really changed the momentum.”

They got a deuce there, capitalizing on Einarson’s miss with her second shot. In the seventh, Jones used her last rock to feather a magnificent draw, leaving Einarson just a draw of her own, which she put on the lid for a 5-4 lead.

But the rhythm of the game was now not in Einarson’s favour. In the eighth end, a couple of misses gave Jones a shot for two. It was going to be a tight one, but her team was enthusiastic: “Let’s make this, Jen,” McEwen said.

As the rock rolled down the sheet, Jones pleaded with it to move — “Curl, curl, curl,” she yelled — and it did. Not much, just enough to drive a red into a yellow, and that yellow into an Einarson red, which squirted out for a deuce.

With that 6-5 lead in her grip, Einarson didn’t have much chance to come back. Jones held her to a force in nine to tie the game and, after Jones’ first shot in the 10th — another beautiful draw to the four-foot paint — she was lying two.

With her last shot, Einarson lined up for a difficult in-off to the button. It wasn’t even close.

In that way, it was very much like the finale of their 1-vs-2 Page game.

“I was trying to leave her a tough shot,” Einarson said. “And again, she didn’t have to throw her last one, which, that sucks. I wanted to make her throw her last, but I didn’t have much of a shot to hide around.”

The journey is not over, for Einarson. In a way, it’s just begun: this was her national debut party.

The crowd at South Okanagan Events Centre adored Team Wild Card. Fans in the stands cheered them the loudest, charmed perhaps by their black jackets, their feisty body language, or just their underdog status against Jones.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Einarson said. “When they’re cheering for us, it gave us so much more energy to keep going. It’s truly awesome, and I really appreciate the fan support. It gives me goosebumps every time they cheer for you.”

So that’s it then, that’s a wrap on these 10 gentle days in Penticton. Sixteen teams came here, to the arms of the mountains, not quite knowing what to expect. More teams, and a new format. Young blood, and savvy veterans.

It was a year in which some curlers made their debut, others their goodbye. A year in which Michelle Englot, an eight-time Saskatchewan champion, one-time buffalo gal and now a Team Canada, took her last bow on a Scotties stage.

Or, it was the year we met charming Quebec skip Emilia Gagne, setting a record here at just 18 years old. She won three games and lost four, but what is more, charmed everyone here with her wide-eyed joy to set foot on the ice.

After this season, so much will be different. On the eve of a new Olympic quadrennial, there will be team break-ups, shake-ups and retirements. Some of the curlers we saw here will rise; others will slip into a calm away from the ice.

The new season will come. The rocks will roar. The 2019 Scotties will roll into Sydney, N.S. — and minutes after her semifinal heartbreak, Halifax skip Mary-Anne Arsenault hinted she’d like to be there, leading a home-province team.

Manitoba will be a story there, too. The province will send at least two teams to that tournament: one Team Canada, another wearing the buffalo jacket, and potentially another wild card winner. The local curling legacy will be renewed.

Who will come out on top then, there’s no way to know. But for now, one last salute.

To Kerri Einarson, a Manitoba star still rising — and to the legend still being made, Jennifer Jones.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca