A rocky evening draw for seconds at Scotties
RED DEER, Alta. — On a night in which players were falling down all over the Enmax Centrium, it was only fitting that the most notable fall produced the most notable turning point Monday night at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
First, it was Team Canada second Tammy Schneider who fell down coming out of the hack in her team’s game against Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones; she left the game to have her leg examined and never returned to the ice, replaced by alternate Jolene Campbell.
Later and two sheets over, another second, New Brunswick’s Jillian Babin, hit the ice as she was sweeping the lastrock draw for three against Alberta’s Heather Nedohin by last- rock thrower Andrea Kelly, and managed to twist her body away to barely avoid making contact with the rock.
And then, in the most gaspinducing moment of the evening, Manitoba second Jill Officer ( tough night for seconds, huh?) was putting a final clean on what appeared to be a made takeout for a go- ahead single point in the sixth end when she stumbled against a guard and went down immediately, making contact with the stone she was sweeping. Instead of a point for Manitoba, it was a stolen two points for Team Canada, propelling the defending champs to a 7- 3 win in a rematch of last year’s Scotties final in Charlottetown.
“That’s curling, and there’s nobody else I’d want to have sweeping my rocks than Jill,” Jones said afterwards, as her team dropped to 3- 2, part of a three- way tie with New Brunswick’s Rebecca Atkinson and Saskatchewan’s Michelle Englot behind the leading 4- 1 duo of Team Canada and B. C.’ s Kelly Scott. “I know she feels terrible, but that’s just the way it goes. We still had lots of game left and we just didn’t make enough shots after that. But we’ll be back fighting ( Tuesday).”
Holland, whose team opened its day with a 7- 5 loss to B. C., said she had no hesitation in taking the stolen points ( she had the right to concede the point as a made shot); it’s worth noting that a couple high- level men’s players contacted after the incident said they would have done the same thing as Holland.
B. C., meanwhile, lost its perfect record late Monday when Nova Scotia’s Heather SmithDacey scored two in the 10th end for an 8- 7 win. B. C. had health issues, as third Sasha Carter missed both games with a stomach bug, and Scott got a taste of it early in the Nova Scotia game, too.
“There’s something going around, our family, our team,” said Scott.