Northern Ontario, New Brunswick both win opening playoff games at Scotties
CBC
No hammer, no problem for Northern Ontario's Krista McCarville.
Starting the game without last rock, McCarville's team stole eight consecutive points over five ends to defeat Tracy Fleury's Wild Card 1 8-3 in a playoff game Friday night at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay, Ont.
In the other Page seeding game, Andrea Crawford of New Brunswick built an early lead then fended off a late charge to defeat Team Canada's Kerri Einarson 8-6. It was the first loss of the tournament for the two-time defending champion from Gimli, Man.
Fleury and Einarson meet in the Page 3 versus 4 game Saturday afternoon. The winner of that game faces the loser of the Page 1v2 game in the semifinal Sunday morning.
Fleury's team from the East St. Paul Curling Club in Manitoba finished first in Pool A during the round robin with a 7-1 record, but struggled to make shots against Northern Ontario. McCarville's team from Thunder Bay made several perfect shots, leaving Fleury facing some difficult situations.
"I'm really happy with the team, we went out there firing and we made every shot," said McCarville. "We persevered and played our game."
Fleury said her team was close, but not quite good enough.
"We want to learn from it," she Fleury. "We feel like we were close but not getting the results on some shots, but we weren't totally far off.
"I think there is a there's still potential to come back stronger."
Fleury played her first game Thursday after being forced to isolate following a positive COVID-19 test before the tournament. Third Selena Njegovan took over the skipping duties for the team that leads both the Canadian and world rankings.
For the second night Einarson faced an early deficit. She trailed 4-0 after three ends, but erased that with three in the fourth end then a steal in five.
Crawford countered with a point in six and a steal in seven. She still needed a draw to the button on her final shot to seal the win.
"We knew with a four-point lead, there's so much game left, it's really hard to maintain that lead," said Crawford. "Even though they snuck back on us we still kept that mindset of fighting. We really stayed focused on each shot and each end."
Einarson trailed Manitoba's Mackenzie Zacharias 6-1 in Thursday's final round robin game before rallying for a 10-7 win. Team Canada led Pool B with a perfect 8-0 record.
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