MOOSE JAW, Sask. — Protective of their curl-life balance, Krista McCarville and her Northern Ontario team build their season around peaking for the national championship.
The Fort William Curling Club foursome from Thunder Bay, Ont., doesn’t play in as many World Curling Tour events as the big names in women’s curling do.
It doesn’t seem to hurt their performance at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
McCarville skipped Northern Ontario to the playoffs for the fourth time in her career.
A 6-5 win over Prince Edward Island’s Suzanne Birt on Friday secured the fourth and final playoff berth for McCarville.
Northern Ontario joins Ontario’s Rachel Homan, Manitoba’s Kerri Einarson and the Jennifer Jones wild-card team in Saturday’s Page playoff in Moose Jaw, Sask.
Trailing three coming home with last-rock advantage, Birt attempted a hit for three and possibly four for the win, but counted two.
“We always seem to make it really exciting at the end,” McCarville observed. “Maybe a few more wrinkles on my face and some more grey hair. What else can I ask for?”
Page seedings were still in play heading into the championship round’s finale Friday evening.
Jones (9-1) was assured a top-two finish. Homan (9-1) and Einarson (8-2) were jockeying to join her.
McCarville (7-3) will be the fourth seed.
The rest of the field fell out of contention with five or more losses.
The top two seeds meet Saturday evening with the winner advancing directly to Sunday’s final.
The loser drops to Sunday’s semifinal to face the winner of Saturday afternoon’s playoff between the third and fourth seeds.
Homan faced Einarson and Jones met McCarville on Friday evening.
McCarville came through the three-four game to reach the 2016 final in Grande Prairie, Alta.
She fell 7-6 to Alberta’s Chelsea Carey. Her teams lost out in the three-four game in 2017 and 2019.
McCarville, who is coached by three-time Canadian men’s champion Rick Lang, is ranked 28th in Canada.
Because her team doesn’t travel to many events, it doesn’t rack up ranking points.
Their presence in Pool A in Moose Jaw contributed to it’s “pool of death” label, however.
“Basically at any Scotties that Krista McCarville is in, whatever pool she’s in is going to be the harder one,” Carey said. “She’s ranked really low, but she’s really good and we all know that.”
McCarville is a teacher, third Kendra Lilly works in financial services, second Ashley Sippala is a lab technician and lead Jen Gates is a communications manager at a country club.
Both McCarville and Sippala have children.
“Right from the time we really started getting more competitive, we said ‘you know what? Curling’s not number one in our lives. We love curling and it’s a passion. All of us want to do it, but it’s not our number one,'” McCarville said.
“We might not ‘spiel as much, but we practise really hard at home. To come out here and be able to contend it is exciting.
“Just coming to the event, we’re fresh and excited and ready. If we travelled a lot, maybe we wouldn’t feel that way.”
Carey will not defend her Canadian title this year. She dropped to six losses falling 9-2 to B.C.’s Corryn Brown.
“Disappointing,” the Calgary skip said. “We just couldn’t quite get it together. We showed flashes of it in a couple games, but couldn’t produce as consistently as we needed to.”
Saskatchewan’s Robyn Silvernagle needed a win and a McCarville loss to keep her playoff hopes alive and got neither.
The host province lost 9-4 to Homan.
“Today we were just a little fooled on the ice,” Silvernagle said. “We’re disappointed we’re not going on into the playoffs, but we attained some of our goals this week as well.”
Jones defeated Einarson 12-7 in a rematch of the Manitoba women’s final.
The two teams tied in the pre-game draw the button to determine who had hammer to start the game. Jones claimed hammer on a second try.
The six-time Canadian champion promptly scored four with it in the first end and another quadruple in the third.
The 16-team Hearts field was divided into two pools, with the top four in each carrying their records with them into the championship round.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 21, 2020.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks announced Tuesday that defenceman Alex Edler will sign a one-day contract in order to officially retire as a member of the NHL team.
The signing will be part of a celebration of Edler’s career held Oct. 11 when the Canucks host the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks selected Edler, from Ostersund, Sweden, in the third round (91st overall) of the 2004 NHL draft.
He played in 925 career games for the Canucks between the 2006-07 and 2020-21 seasons, ranking fourth in franchise history and first among defencemen.
The 38-year-old leads all Vancouver defencemen with 99 goals, 310 assists and 177 power-play points with the team.
Edler also appeared in 82 career post-season contests with Vancouver and was an integral part of the Canucks’ run to the 2011 Stanley Cup final, putting up 11 points (2-9-11) across 25 games.
“I am humbled and honoured to officially end my career and retire as a member of the Vancouver Canucks,” Edler said in a release. “I consider myself lucky to have started my career with such an outstanding organization, in this amazing city, with the best fans in the NHL. Finishing my NHL career where it all began is something very special for myself and my family.”
Edler played two seasons for Los Angeles in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He did not play in the NHL last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.
Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.
The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.
In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.
Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.
Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.
Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.
It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.
Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.
FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.
And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
