Carey wins one for her grandfather
On the day one of her biggest fans was laid to rest, Chelsea Carey had a game that would have made him proud at the Canadian Olympic curling trials.
Carey’s grandfather, John Demkiw, passed away at the age of 93 on Saturday in Winnipeg and his funeral was Wednesday. At the same time, Carey was on the ice at Canadian Tire Centre against Jennifer Jones in a battle of unbeaten teams.
Soon enough, Carey was the only unbeaten skip left standing after her team scored a 7- 5 win over the 2014 Olympic champion.
“He was one of my biggest fans for sure,” Carey said of her grandfather. “He would have been watching, yeah. It was a tough day, but I knew he’d be there with me. I’m sad I couldn’t be at his funeral, I’m sad I can’t be with my mom. My dad and I are both here.
“He would have wanted me to be here and he would have wanted me to pour all my energy and heart and soul into that game and that’s what I did.”
Carey improved her record to 5- 0 and moved closer to clinching a playoff spot. Two of her wins have come against the tournament favourites Jones and Rachel Homan, which will work in her favour if there are ties in the standings.
Jones fell to 5-1, losing for the first time in her team’s last 20 games.
Homan joined her at 5- 1 by making a throughthe- port pocket double in the 10th end to beat Casey Scheidegger 10-7. The shot brought one of the biggest crowds of the week at the CTC to its feet.
“It’s a nice one to have at the end and make a great team shot,” Homan said. “We missed a bunch of shots by a millimetre, which was frustrating, but we stuck with it and believed in each other and had a shot for the win and we made it.
“It felt so awesome to have everybody there going through all the emotions with us in the crowd. It’s fun to make your last shot, that’s for sure. We needed that win, a huge win for us.”
Carey took advantage of some rare misses by Jones, who came up light on two draws that led to a total of five stolen points.
“I don’t know that it was necessarily as well played a game as either team would have liked, but we’ll take it,” Carey said.
Jones said she is struggling with the line calls on tricky ice. Her speed was OK, but she’s going to need to figure out where to put the broom if her team is going to make the playoffs.
“I think we’re made of something a little bit more than just crumbling after one loss,” Jones said. “It’s hard to go through this thing undefeated, but obviously we don’t like to lose that way. It was not our best effort.”
On the men’s side, Calgary’s Kevin Koe became the first team to clinch a playoff spot. Koe ran his record to 6- 0 with a 6- 4 win over John Epping of Toronto.
“Our goal was six wins and we got there a little quicker than we would have anticipated,” said Koe’s third, Marc Kennedy. “That was our best game as a team and we feel pretty good.
“But we’ve all been here before. We know we haven’t won anything yet.”
Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen and current world champion Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., are tied for second place at 4-2. Gushue beat McEwen 8-3 on Wednesday night.
“Things are definitely going better and I feel each game we’re progressing and it’s turning into wins,” Gushue said. “We set the bar pretty low in our first game, but started that upward trend. Tonight was a great game, we got a couple of breaks on Mike’s misses, but as a team we really put the pressure on them and didn’t give them a whole lot of opportunities.”
Teams with three losses are still alive on both sides of the draw, but can’t afford any more slip- ups. The round robin concludes on Friday and the top three teams will make the playoffs on each side, with the top team earning a bye directly into the Sunday finals.
Carey has three games left and can earn the bye with two more wins. Her team plays Julie Tippin ( 1- 4) and Krista McCarville ( 3- 2) on Thursday and Michelle Englot (1-4) on Friday.
“We don’ t necessarily need to win all of those, but it would be great if it happened,” Carey said. “I’m not worried about end results, I’m not worried about record. You think five or six wins will get you something, so Step 1 accomplished.”