Whirlwind week greets Scotties wild card teams
For one team, it’s a golden opportunity to become an instant contender in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and, for the other, a very long trip for nothing.
As Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., and Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alta., made their way to Cape Breton Island with their teams this week, they do so not knowing if they’d be staying for two nights or 11.
“Just pack a lot and be ready for anything,” Scheidegger said.
The two teams will meet in the Scotties wild card game Friday at Centre 200 and the winner will be the third seed for the tournament, which tells you something about the quality of the combatants. One of these two teams — with Einarson ranked second and Scheidegger sixth in the Canadian Team Ranking System — will be going home before the full event gets underway Saturday.
“We’re looking at it just like a provincial final,” Scheidegger said. “It’s the same idea, winner gets to go to the Scotties, so we’re going in with that mindset.”
In most provincial finals, a team has played just a half-dozen or more games to get there. In this case, the teams are coming in a bit cold and, in Scheidegger’s case, possibly a bit weary. Her team had to travel across three time zones late Wednesday after their earlier flight out of Lethbridge was cancelled, spend the night in Halifax and drive more than four hours to Sydney Thursday morning through a province hit by a raging snowstorm Wednesday.
“I would love it if it were a little closer to home,” Scheidegger said with a laugh. “But we’re happy because any second chance is great and any chance to get to the Scotties is what we want. We’re very happy to be in the game.”
Einarson has been down this road before and she saw just how lucrative the wild card spot can be. Wild cards were added to the Scotties and Brier last year in order to give strong teams that lose out in tough provinces a second chance.
Last year in Penticton, B.C., Einarson, with different teammates, beat Chelsea Carey in the wild card game and went on to make it to the Scotties final before losing to Jennifer Jones.
“We had such a great experience with it last year and played so well the entire event,” Einarson said. “That’s what we’re hoping for this year.”
Einarson left her team at the end of last season and formed a new squad with third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Briane Meilleur. It’s a very good team that will be a strong contender if it gets through the wild card game.
It’s also one eagerly seeking redemption after losing the Manitoba final to Tracy Fleury, who replaced Einarson as skip on her old team (third Selena Njegovan, second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin Maccuish).
“It was unfortunate that we didn’t win our province,” Einarson said. “We had such a great provincial. It just sucks that we came out a little bit flat in the final. It happens and we’re gonna learn from that and we’re gonna grow as a team from it.”
Scheidegger’s team, which includes third Cary-anne Mctaggart, second Jessie Haughian (Scheidegger’s sister) and lead Kristie Moore, has had a strong season as well and played in both the Olympic trials and the Scotties last year.
Still, Einarson has the edge in experience. She is in her third Scotties, while Sweeting skipped Team Alberta three times and made the playoffs twice, Birchard played third for Jones last year and won a championship while replacing Olympian Kaitlyn Lawes and Meilleur was a skip herself until this season.
“They’ve all played in big games and we’ve played in a lot of big games as a team this season,” Einarson said.
Scheidegger acknowledged that experience is everything at this level.
“We know (Einarson) knows what to expect, but for us it’s really just about playing well and making a lot of shots,” she said.
“Even at our provincials, we played really well. We didn’t get the results we wanted and so it’s really just fine-tuning and making a couple more shots here or there. We’re really not far off from winning a lot of games that we’ve lost. We’re trying to keep a positive mindset and make those few more shots that we need every game.”