Lawton rink leaves Scotties without medal
MONTREAL — Winning bronze took some of the sting away for Chelsea Carey.
Carey’s Manitoba rink stole three in the 10th end to post a 7-3 victory over Saskatchewan’s Stefanie Lawton to claim the bronze medal at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts on Sunday.
“The disappointment doesn’t go away, but you want to at least salvage what you can out of it,” said Carey. “I don’t agree with this even being a game. I never have.
“The Page (playoff) system builds in a bronze medallist. But, as much as I disagree with the game, it’s nice to win a game to get there.”
Carey made two perfect draws to score two in the eighth end for a 4-3 lead.
Lawton blanked the ninth and had the hammer going into the final end, but then disaster struck.
Second Sherri Singler threw a flash, third Sherry Anderson hit a guard and soon there were five Manitoba stones surrounding the button.
Lawton tried to sneak in an angled raise with her last shot, but it couldn’t get through and Carey got a steal of three.
“It was worth a try,” said Lawton.
“It was there...I had to stick it right on the nose. I couldn’t roll off. But it was a bit too hard. We didn’t leave ourselves in a great position to score one that end.
“It would have been nice to finish with a medal, but I’m proud of our girls. It was a great tournament for us. It’s unfortunate how it ended.”
Carey finished second in the round robin but lost the first-versus-second game to Homan and then was beaten by Sweeting in the semifinal.
“A podium finish is good at our first Scotties and to come back and battle today, I’m so proud of the girls for hanging in there,” said Carey. “It’s tough to get motivated for this and it was a tough game to play, but they just hung in there and we were able to pull it off.
“There’s a little bit of solace in that anyway.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in the crowd of 2,261 at the Maurice Richard Arena.
He has been to the men’s Brier, but a curling official said it was his first visit to the Scotties.
“That’s pretty cool to say you played in front of the prime minister,” said Lawton.
“Too bad we didn’t win.”