Alberta rink maintains focus for two-win day
Laura Walker knew it wouldn't be a walk in the park Friday.
Her Alberta rink needed a twowin day to essentially stay in contention for glory at the 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
The crew from Edmonton's Saville Community Sports Centre got one in the afternoon — a 7-6 extra-end victory over Quebec — and hoped to pick up another in the evening draw against two-time Scotties queen and Olympic gold medallist Jennifer Jones and her Manitoba team.
And they got it — for a big 7-5 triumph — in a bid to become one of three teams from eight advancing from the championship pool to the final round of playoffs.
“Big is the word,” said Walker, with a prize smile.
“It was key. It was mandatory for us pretty much at this point. We needed it, and I'm proud of the way we went out and got it.”
Indeed, the evening win was crucial in the pursuit to be on top of the podium at the conclusion of the 10-day Canadian women's curling championship in the Calgary curling bubble.
Alberta faced trouble to start the day with records carrying over from preliminary pool play into the championship round at Winsport's Markin Macphail Centre.
While it was strong enough to give Walker & Co. a final-eight standing, the Albertans' 5-3 mark put the rink in chase mode from the first end of Friday's two-fer.
That's because both Canada and Ontario headed into the evening draw with 8-1 records, and another win each would virtually lock them into two of the three playoff spots available.
Canada scored a 9-3 victory over Wild Card 1, skipped by Calgary's Chelsea Carey, to improve to 9-1, while Homan played great late to shock Quebec 8-7 and advance to 9-1 as well.
The other berth?
At 7-2, Manitoba had the upper hand in the chase for it heading into Friday's nightcap against Alberta.
The Albertans now have that edge heading into Saturday.
“We're just communicating a lot and doing a lot of talking out there keeping our energy levels high,” said Alberta lead Rachel Brown. “We know this championship round goes by really, really fast, so we're just making sure we're doing a lot of communicating and reminding the girls to stay in the moment and the rest will happen.”
That proved true against Quebec's Laurie St-georges.
“To start off the championship pool with a win — and a very grindy win — is big for our team,” Walker said. “I actually thought we played a lot better than what the scoreboard showed.”
It was a see-saw affair in the win over Manitoba, with Walker's hitand-flop with hammer in the seventh end sending the teams into the home-stretch tied 7-7.
The swing came in the ninth end for Alberta.
After Jones uncharacteristically hit-and-rolled out when she needed her stone to stick around, Walker then deftly drove a Manitoba stone out of back of the house with the hammer to count three and take a commanding lead.
They then ran Jones & Co. out of rocks to wrap it up.
“All wins are pretty big,” added the Alberta skip. “I think we have to win all our games from here on out, and if we do that, then the fate is in our own hands.”
EXTRA ENDS
The other afternoon scores saw: Team Canada, skipped by Manitoba's Kerri Einarson, defeat Saskatchewan 10-6; Ontario, skipped by three-time Scotties champ Rachel Homan, top Wild Card 1 (55) 7-6; and Manitoba outlast Wild Card 3, skipped by Manitoba's Beth Peterson, 12-8 … The other evening game saw Wild Card 3 (6-4) edge Saskatchewan (6-4) 10-9 in an extra end … Saturday's final two draws of the championship round go at 12:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., after which teams with the second- and third-best marks play off in Sunday's semifinal to decide which one challenges the crew with the best record in Sunday's finale.