Curling: Jones finds her spark, but still faces a rocky road at the Scotties

SYDNEY, N.S.— Team Canada’s Jennifer Jones was in familiar form early in the day, but the six-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion still has her work cut out for her.

The arrival of the championship round Thursday afternoon at Centre 200 initially appeared to change things for Jones’ team. But a 9-6 loss to Ontario’s Rachel Homan in Thursday’s evening draw left Jones at 5-4 as the eight teams who made the cut for the championship round vie for the four spots in the page playoffs.

Alberta’s Chelsea Carey, the 2016 Scotties champion, fell to 7-2 overall with back-to-back losses on Thursday — a 10-6 defeat against P.E.I.’s Suzanne Birt after a 10-8 loss against Jones in the afternoon draw.

“We know we’re going to get a loss. It’s kind of good to get it over with,” Carey said after the Jones draw.

Jones’ win against Carey turned on a delicate tapback for three in the seventh end — shades of a vintage Jones.

After a week of near-misses, feather ticks and so-so play, Jones looked sparked.

The slumping body language was gone. High-fives with teammates Kaitlyn Lawes, Jocelyn Peterman and Dawn McEwen were firmer. The smiles were back.

“It felt like — finally,” Jones said.

Carey, Homan and Saskatchewan’s Robyn Silvernagle are tied atop the standings with 7-2 records. Birt, Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville and Team Wild Card’s Casey Scheidegger are all 6-3.

“We’ve got a ton of tough games ahead so we’ve got to keep putting the pedal down,” Homan said.

Jones and British Columbia’s Sarah Wark are tied at 5-4.

Preliminary round records carried over into the champi- onship round, which runs through Friday night.

The top four teams will qualify for the page playoffs starting Saturday. The semifinal and final will be played Sunday.

Jones is looking to set a record with a seventh Scotties title as a skip. She shares the current mark with Colleen Jones.

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