Englot gains new life at Scotties

Skip Michelle Englot went from the disappointment of being a runner-up at the 2017 Scotties Tournament of Hearts to the elation of being Team Canada in 2018.

Englot and her Manitoba team were edged 8-6 by Ontario’s Rachel Homan in the 2017 final.

A perk of winning the national championship is returning as Team Canada the following year.

However, the Team Canada designation went to Englot after Homan’s rink qualified for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

It’s the first time that the original Team Canada hasn’t been able to defend its championship since the concept was initiated in 1985.

Also new is an increase from a 12to a 16-team field this year. The fourteam qualification round has been scrapped and instead of one big round-robin draw, the field is now divided into two eight-team pools.

For the first time, every provincial and territorial association has a direct entry into the main draw. Those 14 teams will be joined by Englot along with the winner of a play-in game Friday night between Chelsea Carey and Kerri Einarson.

The wild-card game is a matchup of the top two teams from the Canadian Team Ranking System list that didn’t qualify out of their provincial/territorial championships. Carey holds the No. 2 CTRS position while Einarson, from Winnipeg, is fourth.

The 2018 Canadian women’s curling championship runs Friday through Feb. 4 at the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton.