Veteran skipper Carey gets on a roll with new mates

Wild Cards keep Scotties hopes alive

As soon as Chelsea Carey and her teammates saw the draw for the 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, they circled Thursday night as a key moment.

It wasn't because of the game they were scheduled to play, but rather because they weren't scheduled to play at all.

Carey, who is skipping Tracy Fleury's rink out of East St. Paul, Man., wrapped up preliminary pool play on Thursday morning and enjoyed a bye in the evening as several other teams battled it out for a chance to move on to the championship pool.

The Fleury foursome was guaranteed at least a tiebreaker with a 5-3 record, so Carey was looking forward to getting a much-needed break in the middle of a major grind in the bubble at the Markin MacPhail Arena in Calgary.

“The timing of the break, we're really happy with it,” Carey said following an 11-2 win over Sarah Hill of Newfoundland and Labrador on Thursday morning.

“At a normal Scotties, there is no bye, because there are an even number of teams in the pool. So we were really happy with where ours was in the draw.

If you have it early in the week, your body isn't tired and beat up yet. It worked out as good as it could have for us.”

Carey, 36, is the replacement skip on the team, officially known as Wild Card 1. She's filling in for Fleury, who stayed home because her infant daughter is ill, and she has seemingly fit in well with third Selena Njegovan, second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish.

It's been a bit of a roller-coaster ride and Carey likely can't afford another loss if she wants to make it to the three-team playoffs on the weekend, but the twotime Canadian women's curling champion is no stranger to getting on a roll.

“Sometimes round robins go that way,” Carey said. “We've had a couple of games where we just struggled to get the ice figured out, but we had it figured out this morning, which is all we can do, and we'll see what happens moving forward.”

As of Thursday afternoon, only two teams had officially clinched berths in the championship pool. They are Team Canada's Kerri Einarson (7-0) and Ontario's Rachel Homan (6-1). They stood at the top of Pool A and were playing each other in the afternoon draw.

Also in contention in that pool, at 4-3, were Laura Walker of Alberta, Beth Peterson (Wild Card 3 from Winnipeg) and Kerry Galusha of Northwest Territories. Peterson and Galusha were facing each other in the afternoon draw while Walker was up against winless Yukon (Laura Eby).

In contention in Pool B were Quebec (Laurie St-Georges), Manitoba (Jennifer Jones) and Saskatchewan (Sherry Anderson), all at 5-2 heading into the evening draw, along with Team Fleury (5-3) and Suzanne

Birt of P.E.I., who had a chance to force tiebreakers, heading into the final draw with a 4-3 record.

Jones, the most decorated player in the history of the Scotties, got off to a ragged start this year, but has now won three games in a row, including a 12-3 drubbing of New Brunswick's Melissa Adams on Thursday morning.

“We're pretty happy with where we're at, given that we had a bit of a bumpy start,” Jones said.

“We're pleased we've put a few wins together, but there are still a lot of games left, and it looks like it's going to come down to the wire. We're going to have to play well the next few games and, hopefully, just keep getting better.

“We're feeling really comfortable with the ice. The ice has been outstanding.”

Saskatchewan's Anderson, 57, is the oldest skip in the field. She's a two-time world senior women's champion and she's showing this week at the Scotties that she still has plenty of game.

Anderson was upset after losing the first game of the Scotties, 7-6 to Birt, but she's since won five of six contests. And she's done it despite not feeling completely comfortable with the ice and the rocks to this point.

“This is the most challenging set of rocks that we've ever played with. On every sheet, there are inconsistencies. You really have to manage them. It's not just a rock or two rocks, it's trying to get the sets right. We're doing a pretty good job with it.”

Chelsea Carey