Ontario, Manitoba keep rocking
Homan, Englot separate selves from the pack
Two teams continued to stand out as the c l ass of t he field Thursday at the 2017 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
That is, Ontario and Manitoba.
With round robin play concluding Friday morning, Team Canada and Northern Ontario appeared in best position to challenge the above duo this weekend for the national women’s curling championship.
Entering Thursday night’s penultimate draw, Rachel Homan of Ontario sat in first with a 10- 0 record, followed by Michelle Englot of Manitoba at 9-1. Team Canada’s Chelsea Carey was at 7-2 with Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville alone in fourth at 6-3.
Homan and Englot were to conclude their round robin schedules against one another Thursday night as frosty ice returned to plague play at the Meridian Centre.
A win for Homan would have clinched first place and given her rink its second perfect Scotties round robin in four years. Last time, in 2014, Homan won the 1- 2 Page playoff game (against Carey, then Manitoba’s skip) to earn a direct berth into the championship final. There, Homan defeated Alberta’s Val Sweeting 8- 6 for her second-straight Scotties title.
That Homan sported a perfect record Thursday afternoon with one round robin game to go, yet still wasn’t assured of finishing first, speaks to how strong a week Englot and her Manitoba foursome have had.
“Manitoba has been playing really well,” Homan said Thursday morning after dispatching Quebec’s Eve Belisle 5-1. “It’s not a team you’re ever going to take lightly. You’re going to be as focused as possible.
“We’re in the playoffs regardless. We’ve just got to play well ( against Manitoba Thursday night). If not, we’re going to learn from whatever happens.”
Englot has been upbeat, confident and making killer shots all week.
“We have been playing fairly solid all year,” she said. “And so we just needed to concentrate on bringing our ‘A’ game to this event, and that’s what so far we’ve managed to do, for the most part. We’ve had a couple of bad ends here and there. But hopefully, we keep building some momentum heading into the final few days.”
Manitoba dumped B.C. 7-2 on Thursday morning.
As f or Carey, t hrough Wednesday she had won seven- straight games after dropping her opener to Homan 7- 5 in an extra end Saturday night. But Thursday afternoon — with frosty ice conditions again plaguing the shot judgment, as had happened Saturday mainly because of the return of record- high temperatures outdoors — Carey gave up three in the opening end to Northern Ontario’s McCarville and never recovered, losing 8-4.
A day earlier, Carey had said the most important ingredient in her team’s winning formula, both last year — when her Alberta rink went 11-2 overall in winning the 2016 Scotties in Grande Prairie, Alta. — and this week, is conservative strategy, even if that results in a lot of close games.
“We’re never f azed by that,” Carey said. “Last year was the same. We didn’t have many blowout wins. It’s just not the way we play, especially on tricky ice. You don’t want to go all in on an end and get burned and give up a steal or something.
“Winning on last rock? We’re pretty comfortable with that.”
But Carey and Co. had to trash that strategy after giving up that first- end threespot to McCarville.
“You have to take chances once you give up a three. You don’t have a choice,” Carey said afterward. “Unfortunately for us, it’s hard ice to be precise on. And Northern Ontario made everything, so what can you do?
“It’s the exact same ice conditions as ( Wednesday) night. It’s tough, but it was just as bad last night. It’s super frosty. You’re guessing at draw weight. It’s tricky.”
A broken dehumidifier in the Meridian Centre contributed to ice reliability, to the extent icemakers scraped the four sheets at the fifthend break in Thursday afternoon’s draw.
Even if Carey dropped her final two round robin games — including Friday morning against Alberta — to finish 7- 4, she would edge a 7- 4 Quebec team on headto- head, because Carey beat Belisle 6-5 on Wednesday.
Carey’s loss to McCarville guaranteed Homan a berth in the 1-2 Page playoff, now a lock to be held Friday night (7:30 p.m. EST, TSN).
The only way Homan won’t be facing Englot’s Manitoba foursome in that game is if Carey and Team Canada win their final two round robin games, coupled with a Manitoba loss Thursday night to Ontario. In that scenario, Manitoba and Team Canada both would wind up with 9- 2 records and Carey would edge Englot by virtue of a head- tohead 8-7 victory on Tuesday night.
The loser of the 1-2 Page playoff faces the 3- 4 Page playoff winner in the semifinal on Saturday ( 7: 30 p. m. EST, TSN).
The bronze- medal match goes Sunday at 2: 30 p. m. EST, with the gold- medal game at 7:30 p.m. EST.
McCarville’s Northern Ontario foursome improved to 6- 3 with the win over Canada to keep separation between themselves and Belisle’s Quebec rink, which had a 6- 4 record heading into Thursday night.
“We knew we had to win that game to stay alone in fourth place,” McCarville said. “Obviously, we want to make the playoffs and avoid (Friday) tiebreakers.”