Einarson hopes to finally topple Jones

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This article was published 18/01/2017 (2653 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In a way, the kickoff news conference for the 2017 Manitoba women’s curling championship was familiar. It filled the same venue as past years, the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame. It featured many of the same faces, the same names.

Yet under that familiar veneer, the curling power in this province is slowly changing. It has already changed.

So perhaps there was a little déjà vu for Kerri Einarson as she faced the TV cameras. Twelve months ago, the East St. Paul skip stood in the same place, preparing to enter the 2016 provincials in Beausejour as second seed.

Now, she’s about to do it again. This time, when provincials kick off at Eric Coy Arena in Charleswood next week, Einarson will be both second seed and reigning champion, with a target on her back shaped like a buffalo jacket.

Often, defending champs enter on top. Then again, most of them don’t share a province with Jennifer Jones.

“Seeds don’t really faze me,” Einarson said.

“You still have to go out there and you still have to play.”

This is well-trodden territory, as far as top Manitoba matchups go. It echoes the anticlimactic 2015 buffalo hunt in Winkler, where Einarson threw everything she had to reach the final against Jones. Back then, she fell short.

Much has happened in the two years since. For one, Team Jones has often looked mortal on this year’s Grand Slam circuit. That said, it did deliver a near-perfect run through the Canada Cup in early December.

“We’ve had some really good games, we’ve had a couple of tough finishes, so we’re going to have to pick up our socks a little bit,” Jones second Jill Officer said, chatting with media at a news conference Thursday.

Meanwhile, the foursome of Einarson, third Selena Kaatz, second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish has been rising. They broke into curling’s upper ranks last season and are now a fixture on the elite Grand Glam circuit.

Yet there is also this: Jones has won every Manitoba championship she’s played in since 2005.

And though Einarson can now count wins over almost every other top team, she has still never beaten the reigning Olympic champion.

She came awfully close when the two met at the Canadian Open earlier this month. So she has hope.

“So close,” Einarson said Thursday, with a laugh. “One day, it’ll come. Hopefully, it’ll be this week.”

So there could be plenty of surprises in store at these provincials.

They will come on the ice, not the rankings; when Curl Manitoba unveiled the top-five seeds Thursday, the field appeared to shape up more or less as expected.

Jones sits at No. 1; Einarson nips her heels at second. Filling out the top five are Michelle Englot, now skipping Kristy McDonald’s former team; 24-year-old Brianne Meilleur, back in the skip’s seat; and veteran Darcy Robertson.

Underneath those top contenders, there is also a passel of talented teams that could seize a playoff berth.

One of those is two-time former Manitoba junior champ Shannon Birchard.

She had a dream run through last year’s provincials, falling to Einarson in the semifinal. Given the right side of the inch, the 22-year-old could go farther.

For better or worse, most eyes will be fixed on Jones, as she makes a bid for what would be her eighth provincial title — and on sharp-shooting Einarson, who is eager to topple her.

She has the potential. True, Einarson had a slow start in Grand Slams this season; part of that, she said, could be the team was slow to adapt to the new uniform brushes, which were mandated after last year’s Broomgate brouhaha.

“It’s a totally different game,” Einarson said. “You’ve got to be careful with your release. We were missing everything high-side. I was just taking too much ice and we weren’t able to get it to curl or we weren’t able to even hold it.”

The turnaround started at the Canada Cup in Brandon. Einarson fell to Rachel Homan in that semifinal, but not before she’d surged to wins over some of Canada’s top curlers: Val Sweeting (twice), Chelsea Carey and Homan.

At the National in Sault Ste-Marie, Ont., Einarson caught fire. She lost only her first game, against Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni. After that, she fired back and rode six consecutive wins to her first top-tier Grand Slam championship.

“We were just throwing them great, all of our line-calling, and we really worked as a team that whole event,” Einarson said. “We’re definitely feeling very comfortable.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca