P.E.I.’s Birt stuns six-time champion

Prince Edward Island skip Suzanne Birt is not intimidated on the ice, no matter who the opposition might be.

She used an aggressive style against six-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion Jennifer Jones on Monday and it paid off with an 8-6 victory at Centre 200.

“I think Suzanne, (going) back to her junior days, has just had it, especially when she has draw weight,” said P.E.I. coach Mitch O’Shea. “I think she feels like she can make everything.

“Her confidence is pretty good right now, so it’ll be good going through the rest of the week.”

It was the first of two victories for Birt on the day, with P.E.I. beating Yukon 8-4 in the evening draw to improve to 3-1. Birt and her rink share first place in Pool B with Casey Scheidegger’s wild-card rink and Kerry Galusha of Northwest Territories.

Jones lost again in the late draw, 9-6 to New Brunswick, to fall to 2-2.

A world junior champion in 2001, Birt won a bronze medal at her first Scotties appearance in 2003. She improved to 2-9 lifetime against Jones, with the other victory coming at the 2011 national playdowns.

“I just think we put a little more pressure on,” Birt said. “We were getting our rocks in good spots and made them try to make shots. They struggled (with) a few shots early on, so we just kept the pressure on and tried to capitalize.”

Jones scored a pair in the opening end before Birt posted three straight deuces, thanks to a pair of steals. The teams exchanged singles until Jones stole a pair in the eighth end to make it a one-point game.

Birt had hammer in the 10th and won it with a single when Jones’ final stone overcurled.

“I threw good weight and unfortunately it just got to the middle and the speed came off,” Jones said.

“It should never have been light just based on the time. We’ve got to get a little bit better at figuring that out.”

All four members of the Winnipeg foursome — Jones, Dawn McEwen, Jocelyn Peterman and Kaitlyn Lawes — struggled at times.