Carey rolls, Homan and McCarville advance to playoffs

Alberta skip stays unbeaten at the Scotties

SYDNEY, N.S. — Unbeaten Alberta skip Chelsea Carey kept rolling at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts on Wednesday with a 12-3 rout of Quebec’s Gabrielle Lavoie at Centre 200.

Carey finished Pool A curling play at 7-0 and will advance to the championship round starting Thursday afternoon.

“You’d love to go undefeated but you hope you’d go 6-1 or 5-2 and give yourself a good chance in the championship round,” Carey said. “7-0 is a bonus and we’ll take it.”

Ontario’s Rachel Homan and Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville joined Carey in the championship round after posting afternoon victories. Homan (5-2) booked her ticket with an 8-6 win over British Columbia’s Sarah Wark while McCarville (5-2) needed an extra end to beat Manitoba’s Tracy Fleury, 7-5.

The results set up a morning tiebreaker between Wark and Fleury in a battle of 4-3 rinks.

Nova Scotia’s Jill Brothers (2-5) posted an 11-1 rout of Nunavut’s Jenine Bodner (1-6) in the other Draw 13 game.

In the morning Pool B matchups, Saskatchewan’s Robyn Silvernagle and Team Canada’s Jennifer Jones posted key victories to improve to 4-2 and guarantee tiebreaker appearances at a minimum.

Silvernagle beat Yukon’s Nicole Baldwin, 6-4, while Jones’s Winnipeg rink topped Kelli Sharpe of Newfoundland and Labrador, 8-4.

Entering the preliminary round finale Wednesday night, Suzanne Birt of Prince Edward Island and Casey Scheidegger’s Team Wild Card led Pool B at 5-1.

P.E.I. hammered Kerry Galusha, 15-5, in the morning to drop the Northwest Territories skip to fifth place at 3-3.

Scheidegger’s rink from Lethbridge, Alta., beat Andrea Crawford of New Brunswick, 7-3.

The top four teams in each pool advance to the championship round.

Records from the preliminary round carry over with the top four teams advancing to the page playoffs on Saturday. The semifinal and final are on Sunday.

The winner will represent Canada at the March 16-24 world women’s curling championship in Silkeborg, Denmark.

ANDREW VAUGHAN THE CANADIAN PRESS Alberta skip Chelsea Carey, pictured, finished the Scotties round-robin with a 12-3 win against Quebec’s Gabrielle Lavoie on Wednesday.