Latest news with #HalifaxCurlingClub
CBC
23-02-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Nova Scotia's Black to face Manitoba's Einarson in semifinal at Tournament of Hearts
Social Sharing Christina Black's deployment of a five-player rotation on her curling team, instead of the traditional four players and alternate, delivered Saturday in a playoff win at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Black's Nova Scotia team reached Sunday's semifinal at the Canadian women's curling championship with an 8-7 win over Alberta's Kayla Skrlik in Thunder Bay, Ont. Her second Jennifer Baxter abruptly leaving the game after the second end didn't rattle Black's Halifax foursome. Marlee Powers, who rotated games with Baxter in Thunder Bay, Ont., and in the majority of other events this season, seamlessly stepped into the void with 83 per cent shooting accuracy. With no warm-up, Powers executed a hit and roll behind cover and a draw around guard on her first shots of the third end. "Oh my gosh, she was amazing," Black said. "It wasn't like it was weird to have her out there. She's been out there most of the games this year. She's been in half the games this week. "So to have her just come off the bench, it's not like it changes any dynamic or chemistry or anything. We've already had that all built up, so it's good." Not good was a visibly upset Baxter stepping out of the game. "All we're going to say is there was a family situation, a family emergency, and for family privacy, that's all we're saying," said coach Stuart Maclean. When asked if Baxter would play in Sunday's semifinal, MacLean replied "I don't think so. I don't know for sure." Black, whose Halifax Curling Club foursome includes Jill Brothers at vice and Karlee Everist at lead, will face four-time Canadian champion Kerri Einarson of Manitoba in Sunday's semifinal. Einarson lost 8-4 to defending champion Rachel Homan in Saturday's later Page playoff between the top two seeds to drop to the semifinal. Homan's team out of the Ottawa Curling Club earned an express ticket to Sunday's final. The champion at Fort William Gardens represents Canada at the world championship March 15-23 in Uijeongbu, South Korea. Formidable back end Black reached her first semifinal the third time she's skipped her province in the Hearts. She previously appeared in a semifinal as Mary-Anne Arsenault's vice in Penticton, B.C., in 2018. Brothers made her first semifinal after seven tries playing for or skipping other teams. Once Black's provincial rival, the two women joined forces this season to create a formidable back end. Black said earlier in the tournament that Brothers' extensive experience made her job as skip less mentally draining. "It just feels like we know that we have the knowledge and the shots confidence to just go out there and do it," Brothers said. "I don't know if I've always had that in the past, so I think we just make a good duo at the back end. "I trust that when we have a draw that she needs to get us out of trouble, done, she's doing it." Black drew for a piece of the button in Saturday's ninth end to score three points and re-take the lead. Alberta was up 6-5 after a three-point eighth end. 'So close' Skrlik missed an attempt of a difficult quadruple takeout in the 10th to score two and force an extra end. "We were so, so close on so many shots this game. Just the wrong side of the inch," said the 27-year-old Skrlik, who skipped a team to the final four in her second Hearts appearance. "We have so much, so much to learn from this event, our draw to pins all the way right to the Page playoff, it's been fantastic. I don't think you can learn how to play those games until you're in them." A subplot for both Black and Skrlik in the final four was their pursuit of an express pass to next year's Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Mississauga, Ont., as well as spots in November's Olympic trials in Halifax. Teams collect points, weighted via strength of field, at events throughout the curling season that are reflected in the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS). The top three women's teams in the CTRS at the end of this season — April's AMJ Players' Championship in Toronto is the last event — bypass provincial championships for direct entry into the 2026 Hearts in Mississauga. And should Canada's No. 1 Homan repeat as Hearts champion in Thunder Bay, the next three teams in the rankings gain a trip to Mississauga. Skrlik and Black also closed in on berths in the Olympic trials that determine Canada's representatives in Milan-Cortina, Italy, in 2026. Three spots go to three teams with the most combined points from both the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. Another berth goes to the team ranked first in just 2024-25. Homan and Einarson already locked in for trials created a potential domino effect of berths falling to the next teams in the rankings. Skrlik's team out of Calgary's Garrison Curling Club carried a rank of third this season, and fifth in combined points, into Thunder Bay. "If I told you we didn't have a spreadsheet going, I'd be lying," Skrlik said. "We've tracked it like most of the year. Super important, two-year total, one-year total. "We're looking for Scotties berths. We're looking for a trials berth. This means quite a bit for our season points-wise, and the points chase for all of our big goals." Black arrived in Thunder Bay ranked fourth this season and seventh in combined seasons. "I don't have it worked out completely. I don't have my spreadsheet open, but pretty sure that might lock us in for like, a pre-qualified spot at the trials, which would be amazing. It's in Halifax," Black said.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Playoffs set at Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Rachel Homan unbeaten
THUNDER BAY, Ont. — Kerri Einarson's curling team from Manitoba claimed a top playoff seed at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts after scrambling hard to get there. Einarson, who skipped her teams to four straight Canadian women's curling championships from 2020 to 2023, trailed at the fifth-end break in three of her four straight wins to cap pool play. "We're definitely excited to be in this position because it wasn't looking like that early on in the week," Einarson said Thursday night. "It definitely hasn't been easy. We haven't made it easy on ourselves. We're trending in the right direction, and I think we're getting hot at the right time." Einarson, Nova Scotia's Christina Black and Ontario's Danielle Inglis went 6-2 to advance from a tough Pool B and were seeded in that order. Defending champion Rachel Homan carried a 8-0 record atop Pool A into Friday's championship round followed by Alberta's Kayla Skrlik and B.C.'s Corryn Brown at 6-2. Skrlik ranked higher because of a win over Brown in the preliminary round. Homan faces Black, and Einarson meets Skrlik on Friday afternoon. The victors advance into Saturday's Page playoff between the top two seeds. On Friday evening, the loser of Homan versus Black takes on B.C.'s Brown, and the loser of Einarson versus Skrlik faces Inglis. The winners meet in Saturday's Page playoff between the third and fourth seeds and the losers are eliminated. Sunday's winner at the Fort William Gardens represents Canada at the world championship March 15-23 in Uijeongbu, South Korea, and earns $100,000 in prize money. Einarson started the tournament 2-2 before escaping with wins against Kate Cameron and Black when trailing by large margins after five ends. "When we were tested, we came out and made those clutch shots when we needed," the skip said. Einarson downed fellow-Manitoban Kaitlyn Lawes 9-6 on Thursday night. Halifax Curling Club's Black, who reached the final four two years ago in Kamloops, B.C., defeated Cameron 8-6. "I'm a lot mentally tougher than I was two years ago," Black said. "You just know what it's like to be out there in the playoff round. It's different than the round robin, less people out there and the games are tough. You just have to be able to maintain your focus for such a long period of time. It's such a grind." Inglis and teammates out of the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club were 9-3 winners over Kerry Galusha of Northwest Territories. They went 3-5 in their Hearts debuts last year in Calgary. "We're the underdogs because the eyes aren't really on us," Inglis said. "Especially with the way our season had played out so far, I think coming in here, might have been underestimated by a few people, and I think that's a good place to be." Homan wanted her Ottawa Curling Club team to finish pool play strong in an 8-4 win over Alberta's Selena Sturmay, and continue scouting rock movement and ice behaviour heading into the next round. "It was the opportunity to play on those middle sheets, learn the ice and the rocks, how we need to play moving forward," said Homan. "Unfortunately, it's pretty straight out there. Can be a bit frustrating at times, but this is the ice conditions that we have in this building. Just learning to love them as much as we can and learn them as best we can, how we need to sweep them, how to approach shots and just trying to stay in the moment of every rock." Skrlik downed Nunavut's Julia Weagle 7-4 and Brown beat Prince Edward Island's Jane DiCarlo 9-2 in the final Pool A draw. Skrlik skipped a slightly different lineup to a 4-4 record in her Hearts debut two years ago in Kamloops, B.C. With Margot Flemming coming on board for this season at third, sister Ashton and Geri-Lynn Ramsay shifting positions and the latter holding the broom for Skrlik, the Garrison Curling Club foursome out of Calgary played 13 events this season to forge team chemistry. Skrlik reached the final of September's single knockout PointsBet Invitational in Calgary where the team fell 8-3 to Homan. "I think this is our 79th or 80th game of the season, so we've played a lot," said Skrlik. "It's been very, very beneficial this year, with Margot being new in the lineup, Ashton being in a new position, and Geri-Lyn being in a new position. "We've gone from our first time showing up, playing the Scotties, not playing almost a single team in the field, to playing quite a few of these teams. It's really, really paid off." Brown, who is almost six months pregnant, reached the playoffs for the first time in the tournament's current format. Her Kamloops Curling Club lineup includes Erin Pincott, Sarah Koltun and Samantha Fisher. "This is the most relaxed we've ever played," Brown said. "I don't think any of us have really felt kind of the nerves. We've had some really good kind of guidance from (coach) Jim (Cotter) and our sports psychologist Tracey Bilsky, to kind of guide us through that." Fisher topped all leads at 93 per cent shooting accuracy in pool play. "The lead can either make it really hard or really easy, and Sam's done a fabulous job all week to kind of lead the way for us and really kind of put us in a really good position in all games," said Brown. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2025. Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
