EINARSON RINK WINS TOP RANK AT SCOTTIES
Manitoba takes on Wild Card in 1 vs. 2; Ontario battles N. Ontario in 3 vs. 4 game
Kerri Einarson has learned the best teams are the ones that can park losses and come right back out on the ice with their A-game.
The Manitoba skip showed it earlier in the week after her team gave up a Scotties Tournament of Hearts record seven points in one end while losing to Andrea Crawford of New Brunswick.
And she and her teammates showed it again on Friday night after getting clobbered 12-7 by Team Wild Card (Jennifer Jones) in the afternoon at Mosaic Place.
Needing a win over three-time Canadian champion Rachel Homan of Ontario on the evening draw, Einarson and her teammates went out and put in a precise performance, winning 9-6 to lock up first place after the championship round.
“I think that’s key — you’ve got to just be able to shrug a loss off and move forward,” Einarson said. “That’s what creates the best teams in the world. You toss the loss away and move forward. We knew we were playing well (against Jones), we just had two not-so-great ends.”
Einarson will play Jones again Saturday night in the Page playoff 1 vs. 2 game, with the winner getting a direct berth in Sunday’s final and the loser dropping into the semifinal.
It’s a rematch of the Manitoba final, where Einarson beat Jones 8-6. Jones then beat fellow Manitoban Tracy Fleury in the wild card game on Feb. 14 and then reeled off a 9-2 record as she searches for her seventh Canadian women’s curling championship.
Manitoba, Team Wild Card and Ontario all finished at 9-2 but Manitoba and Wild Card were seeded higher as a result of the cumulative last stone draw competition held before each game.
Jones lost 11-6 on the final draw Friday to Krista Mccarville of Northern Ontario, but her team already knew it had a spot in the 1 vs. 2 game before playing.
“We knew where we sat and we were just a little bit flat and it was good to get some of the bad shots out before heading into the playoffs,” Jones said.
“The 1-2 game is a great game to play in but at the end of the day, you just want to make the final four. We’ll take it.”
Ontario will face Northern Ontario (8-3) in the 3 vs. 4 game, with the winner advancing to the semifinal and the loser getting eliminated.
Homan’s team has looked very consistent all week but met a solid match in Einarson on Friday night.
“We love the opportunity to be in the playoffs and we better go out and bring our A-game in that 3-4 game,” Homan said.
“Whether you’re playing in the 3-4 or the 1-2, we’re all playing close to the same amount of games to get through this.
“If you can get that momentum rolling in the 3-4 it looks good for you but we’ve got to come out sharp (Saturday).”
Einarson’s team, which includes third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Brianne Meilleur, will have hammer in first end of the 1-2 game. Einarson has not won a national championship but made the final as Team Wild Card in 2018 (losing to Jones) and lost the 3-4 game as Team Manitoba in 2016.
Mccarville finished with an 8-3 record and is running with the top teams despite not putting as much time into competitive curling as the others.
“Right from the time we started getting more competitive, we said, ‘You know what, curling ’s not No. 1 in our lives,’ ” Mccarville said.
“We love curling and it’s a passion and all of us want to do it, but it’s not our No. 1 ... I have a family and they are No. 1 to me and I love my profession of teaching. But to come out here and contend is exciting and we have worked really hard this year.”
Friday marked the end of the road for a few notable teams, including the host province reps from Saskatchewan (Robyn Silvernagle) and Team Canada, skipped by Chelsea Carey.
Saskatchewan finished 6-5, while Canada wound up at 5-6.
“It’s disappointing,” said Carey, who won her second Canadian title last year in Sydney, N.S.
“We just didn’t quite have it. We weren’t far off of good things, we just couldn’t quite get it together. We showed flashes of it in a couple games but we couldn’t produce it as consistently as we need to.”
Carey, third Sarah Wilkes, second Dana Ferguson and lead Rachel Brown did get to spend a year as Team Canada and that’s a memory they’ll always cherish.