JONES HAS BRUSH WITH HISTORY AFTER RECORD-TYING SCOTTIES WIN
Jennifer Jones is back on top.
The Manitoba skip claimed her first Scotties Tournament of Hearts championship since 2015 with an 8-6 win over Kerri Einarson’s wild-card rink in Sunday’s final without having to play her final shot.
Jones captured the 2018 title with her Winnipeg-based team of third Shannon Birchard, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwan. Jones and Officer have both tied Colleen Jones with a record six national titles each.
There was a new twist for Jones because she accomplished it without her regular third Kaitlyn Lawes, who is curling in mixed doubles at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Birchard was added after Jones won her eighth Manitoba championship and the team didn’t miss a beat. Lawes is expected to return to her regular role when Jones heads to the world championship March 17-25 in North Bay, Ont.
The 2018 Scotties marked the debut of the wild-card team. It was added when the field was expanded from 12 to 16 teams to include all 14 Curling Canada member associations. Team Canada was given one of the spots and the other was awarded to the winner of a wild-card game between Einarson and Calgary’s Chelsea Carey, the leading skips on the Canadian Team Ranking System who hadn’t qualified for the Scotties through their provincial playdowns.
Einarson, who was curling with third Selena Kaatz, second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish, punched her ticket into the Scotties with a 7-4 win over Carey Jan 26.
The skip snapped a 17-game winless streak against Jones with a victory during the preliminary round robin.
Jones rebounded by beating Einarson 9-7 in Saturday’s one-versus-two Page playoff game, which featured numerous twists and turns, great shots and some misses to keep it interesting.
Jones executed a perfect draw in the 10th end to clinch the victory and a bye to the final.
Sunday’s final started with Einarson forcing Jones into hitting for a 1-0 lead after the opening end.
With the hammer in the second end, Einarson was in prime position to score three. She was heavy on the draw and had to settle for a 2-1 advantage.
Einarson rebounded in the third end with a double-takeout to lay two in the four foot. Jones punched out one of the stones to score one and tie the game 2-2.
In the fourth end, Einarson drew to the four foot for a 3-2 lead.
Einarson went into the fifth end leading 4-2 after stealing one.
Jones then hit for two in the sixth end to create a 4-4 tie after Einarson wasn’t able to execute a second consecutive runback.
Einarson drew for one in the seventh end to lead 5-4.
Jones jumped into a 6-5 lead with a hit for two in the eighth end.
In the ninth end, Einarson drew the button to create a 6-6 deadlock coming home.
PEBBLES: Jones (skip), Alberta’s Cary-Anne McTaggart (third), Officer (second) and McEwen (lead) were named first team all-stars. The second-team all-stars were Northern Ontario’s Tracy Fleury (skip), Birchard (third), Alberta’s Jessie Scheidegger (second) and Team Canada’s Raunora Westcott (lead). The all-stars were based on shooting percentages … Saskatchewan skip Sherry Anderson was the recipient of the Marj Mitchell Sportsmanship Award as voted on by the players. Anderson also won the award in 2004, 2014 and 2015 … The Scotties winner receives $29,000 in prize money, including athlete assistance and cresting funding. The rest of the prize money is $24,000 (second place), $19,000 (third) and $15,000 (fourth) … There isn’t any Sport Canada funding for the Canadian champions because it’s an Olympic year … The Canadian champion needs to win a medal at the world championship and retain three of four players to qualify for the Continental Cup. Each team also picks up Canadian Team Ranking System points … Sunday’s final draw attracted 3,840 spectators for a total attendance of 55,138 and an average of 2,205 through 25 draws