ROCK STARS AT SCOTTIES
Homan, Englot ring leaders
Ontario and Manitoba continued to stand out as the class of the field Thursday at the 2017 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
With round-robin play concluding Friday morning, Team Canada and Northern Ontario appear in best position to challenge the duo for the national women’s curling championship.
Entering Thursday night’s penultimate draw, Rachel Homan of Ontario sat in first with a 10-0 record, followed by Michelle Englot of Manitoba at 9-1. Team Canada’s Chelsea Carey was at 7-2, with Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville alone in fourth at 6-3.
Homan and Englot were set to conclude their round-robin schedules against one another Thursday night as frosty ice returned to plague play at the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines.
A win for Homan would clinch first place and give her rink its second perfect Scotties round robin in four years. Last time, in 2014, Homan won the one-two Page playoff game (against Carey, then Manitoba’s skip) to earn a direct berth into the championship final, where Homan defeated Alberta’s Val Sweeting 8-6 for her second Scotties title.
That Homan sported a perfect record Thursday afternoon with one round robin game to go, yet still wasn’t assured of finishing first, reflects how strong a week Englot and her Manitoba foursome have had.
“Manitoba has been playing really well,” Homan said Thursday morning after dispatching Quebec’s Eve Belisle 5-1. “It’s not a team you’re ever going to take lightly. You’re going to be as focused as possible.
“We’re in the playoffs regardless.”
Englot has been upbeat, confident and making killer shots all week.
“We have been playing fairly solid all year,” she said. “And so we just needed to concentrate on bringing our A game to this event, and that’s what so far we’ve managed to do for the most part. We’ve had a couple of bad ends here and there. But hopefully we keep building some momentum heading into the final few days.”
As for Carey, through Wednesday she had won seven straight games after dropping her opener to Homan 7-5 in an extra end Saturday night. But Thursday afternoon — with poor ice again hampering shots, as had happened Saturday, mainly because of the return of record-high temperatures outdoors — Carey gave up three in the opening end to Northern Ontario’s McCarville and never recovered, losing 8-4.
A day earlier, Carey had said the most important ingredient in her team’s winning formula — both this week and last year, when she won the 2016 Scotties — is conservative strategy, even if that results in a lot of close games.
“We’re never fazed by that,” Carey said. “Last year was the same: We didn’t have many blowout wins. It’s just not the way we play, especially on tricky ice. You don’t want to go all in on an end and get burned, and give up a steal or something.
“Winning on last rock? We’re pretty comfortable with that.”
But Carey and Co. had to trash that strategy after giving up that first-end three-spot to McCarville.
“You have to take chances once you give up a three. You don’t have a choice,” Carey said. “Unfortunately for us, it’s hard ice to be precise on. And Northern Ontario made everything, so what can you do?
“It’s the exact same ice conditions as last night. It’s tough, but it was just as bad last night. It’s super frosty. You’re guessing at draw weight. It’s tricky.”
A broken dehumidifier in the Meridian Centre contributed to ice unreliability, to the extent icemakers scraped the four sheets at the fifth-end break in Thursday afternoon’s draw.
Even if Carey were to drop her final two round robin games — including Friday morning to 5-5 Alberta — to finish 7-4, she would edge a 7-4 Quebec team on head-to-head because Carey beat Belisle 6-5 on Wednesday.
Carey’s loss to McCarville guaranteed Homan a berth in Friday’s one-two Page playoff. The only way Homan won’t face Englot’s Manitoba foursome in that game is if Carey and Team Canada win their final two round-robin games, coupled with a Manitoba loss Thursday night to Ontario. In that scenario, Carey would edge Englot by virtue of a head-to-head 8-7 victory on Tuesday night.
Last year was the same: We didn’t have many blowout wins. It’s just not the way we play.