Jones and Robertson to face off in Scotties final

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/01/2018 (2294 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

KILLARNEY — It was a roller-coaster ride of a Manitoba Scotties semifinal, whiplashed by steals, momentum swings and more than a few gut-wrenching misses. When the dust settled, it still came down to the last rock.

Now, Darcy Robertson and her team of third Karen Klein, second Vanessa Foster and lead Theresa Cannon are headed back to the provincial final for the second year in a row.

The veteran Assiniboine Memorial skip put up a tenacious stand in the semifinal, beating Kerri Einarson 9-7 to keep her buffalo hunt on track. That will return her to the championship match, where she fell in 2017 to Michelle Englot.

“It makes you feel good,” Robertson said, of the final repeat. “We worked hard this year, so it’s nice to get back here.”

At first, it was Einarson who came out swinging: she struck for a deuce to open the match, and held Robertson to a force in the second, but then the East St. Paul skip began to struggle; she finished the game shooting just 59 per cent.

Taking advantage, Robertson stole four points over the next three ends, and carried a 5-2 lead into the break.

But Einarson — the 2016 Manitoba champion — wasn’t giving up that easy. In the sixth, Robertson’s attempted double failed to find its second target; that gave Einarson a chance to hit and stay for a deuce and she made it, no problem.

In the seventh, the tables continued to turn. A pair of pretty shots by Einarson set her up to steal two, when Robertson’s hammer failed to curl. Suddenly, Einarson’s team was back on top, holding a narrow 6-5 lead.

But in the eighth, the momentum swung back around in Robertson’s favour. With her last shot, Einarson had a prime chance for a double that would limit Robertson to one; the shot flubbed, leaving Robertson’s shot stone untouched.

Robertson collected an easy deuce to regain a 7-6 lead going into the ninth.

“They took control, but we made some good shots,” Robertson said, of the late-game turnaround. “They missed a couple and gave us two back, so it was kind of a back-and-forth game like that.”

In a tense ninth, Robertson held Einarson to a single; in the 10th, a handful of painful misses on both sides made for a tense finish, but Einarson’s last shot rolled too far out of cover, leaving Robertson a straightforward hit for two.

Next on the docket: Jennifer Jones. Robertson toppled Jones in the 2017 semifinal, though that hardly means anything now. But she’s played reams of games against Jones, and knows what to expect from the Olympic champs.

If Robertson wins, it would be her fourth buffalo jacket in a career spanning over three decades. She clinched her first provincial championship in 1986 as a skip, and went on to earn two more playing third for sister Barb Spencer.

“It would be great. It’s always great to get back to the Scotties, and represent Manitoba,” Robertson said.

Speaking of which: with the semifinal win, Robertson tied Spencer’s record for most all-time wins at provincials.

The semifinal was a heartbreaker for Einarson, who is hungry to reclaim the buffalo jacket she won in 2016. But her national hopes may not be over: she may get a second chance to get on the national draw in Penticton, B.C.

A format change for national competitions this year opened up a new Scotties berth. Each year, the two highest-ranked Canadian teams that don’t win their province will move on to a play in a wild card game for that last spot.

Einarson is ranked fourth in Canada, behind Jones (one), Chelsea Carey (two) and Rachel Homan. With Homan off to the Olympics, that means if either Jones or Carey win their province, Einarson will snag a wild card game berth.

Of course, Einarson would rather have won Manitoba and “gotten it over with,” she says. Besides, the uncertainty of the wild card game means families can’t book trips to watch them play at nationals since it’s all too up in the air.

“I would like to just focus on having my fate in my own hands,” she said. “Now I’ve got to leave it up to others.”

Like many top curlers around Canada, Einarson is ambivalent about the new national format. (It also expanded the Scotties field to 16 teams.) On the other hand, if a wild card is her pass to compete for Canada, well, she’ll take it.

“Having a CTRS (ranking) team makes no sense to me,” she said. “It’s supposed to be teams win provinces, not just throw someone in there because they lost their province. They obviously didn’t play well enough to get there.

“But I feel lucky right now that I’m in that spot.”

The 2018 Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts wraps up this afternoon, with the 2:30 p.m. championship final. The game will be broadcast live on Sportsnet.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca