KAMLOOPS — Kerri Einarson heads into the Canadian women’s curling championship playoffs in command of her bid for a fourth straight title.
The lone unbeaten team at 7-0 got there with bold tactics and precise shot execution, plus an understanding of changing ice conditions in Kamloops, B.C.
The first team to attempt a Scotties Tournament of Hearts quadruple since Colleen Jones from 2001 to 2004 knows the level of execution required to do it.
“I think we’re close,” Einarson said Thursday. “Not quite there yet, but I know now that we’ve got a feeling out there of what the ice is going to be like to continue.
“I think we’ll have a really good handle on it.”
Einarson, third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Briane Harris from Manitoba’s Gimli Curling Club held off Kayla Skrlik’s tenacious Alberta rink 9-8 to extend their winning streak.
With one game remaining in Pool A at night against winless Nunavut, Einarson was poised to go undefeated in her group a second straight year.
“We’re happy with our start to the event, but definitely there’s still a lot left to do here,” Sweeting said.
Six teams — three from each pool — from the field of 18 advanced to Friday’s championship round.
Four teams were playoff-bound with a five-way race for the remaining two berths still in play Thursday evening.
Einarson, last year’s finalist Krista McCarville of Northern Ontario, Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones and Ontario’s Rachel Homan advanced.
Ontario’s 5-3 win over New Brunswick early Thursday propelled three-time Hearts winner Homan into the next round as the third seed in Pool B behind McCarville and Jones, both 7-1.
“That was a huge win for our team,” Homan said. “That was really strong showing. We still had some misses but we made some big ones when it counted.”
With identical records, McCarville earned the higher seed atop Pool B over Jones by virtue of Northern Ontario’s win over Manitoba in the tournament’s opening draw.
Homan posted a 6-2 record with a 9-5 win over Casey Scheidegger’s wild card team in the afternoon.
A playoff berth already in the bag gave pregnant Ontario lead Sarah Wilkes a breather.
Alternate Kira Brunton drew into the lineup against Scheidegger.
Finishing first in their respective pools provide Einarson and McCarville byes to Friday’s championship finals, which seeds the final four for Saturday’s Page playoff.
They also avoid the sudden-death elimination games between the second and third seeds earlier that day.
Manitoba and Ontario awaited the pool-play finale to deliver their next opponents from the bunch still in contention.
Quebec’s Laurie St-Georges (5-2) and four teams at 4-3 — Alberta, Nova Scotia’s Christina Black, B.C.’s Clancy Grandy, Kaitlyn Lawes’s wild card 1 — created the scenario for a Pool A tiebreaker game Friday morning.
“I think this is the strongest field we’ve ever had and I’ve ever seen,” Homan said. “It’s awesome to go out there and have to play your best every game. That’s what a nationals should be.”
Snow and rain outside the Sandman Centre over the opening days of the tournament gave way to cold, dry temperatures by Thursday, which Homan says made for more consistent ice conditions.
“Thankfully, the cold came in and frost is gone now,” the skip said. “Lots of really great shots made all over the board and you can really trust the ice right now.”
An incentive for Einarson to go undefeated was earning hammer to start the first end of all playoff games, as well as first choice of a set of rocks.
The semifinal and final are Sunday.
The Hearts winner represents Canada at the world championship March 18-26 in Sandviken, Sweden, and returns to the 2024 national championship in Calgary as the defending champion.
The victor also earns $108,000 from a total prize purse of $300,000 and is eligible for Sport Canada “carding”‘ money as part of Curling Canada’s national-team program.
Six-time Canadian champion Jones capped the preliminary round by beating New Brunswick’s Andrea Kelly 8-5.
Kerry Galusha of Northwest Territories finished with a record of 4-4.
New Brunswick’s Kelly, Scheidegger and Meghan Walter’s wild-card 3 were 3-5, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Stacie Curtis 2-6 and Yukon’s Hailey Birnie 1-7.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 23, 2023
EDMONTON – The Edmonton Oilers signed defenceman Travis Dermott to a professional tryout on Friday.
Dermott, a 27-year-old from Newmarket, Ont., produced two goals, five assists and 26 penalty minutes in 50 games with the Arizona Coyotes last season.
The six-foot, 202-pound blueliner has also played for the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Toronto drafted him in the second round, 34th overall, of the 2015 NHL draft.
Over seven NHL seasons, Dermott has 16 goals and 46 assists in 329 games while averaging 16:03 in ice time.
Before the NHL, Dermott played two seasons with Oilers captain Connor McDavid for the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. The team was coached by current Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Maria Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam singles champion, led the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan vote her first year on the ballot — an important part to possible selection to the hall’s next class.
The organization released the voting results on Friday. American doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan finished second with Canada’s Daniel Nestor third.
The Hall of Fame said tens of thousands of fans from 120 countries cast ballots. Fan voting is one of two steps in the hall’s selection process. The second is an official group of journalists, historians, and Hall of Famers from the sport who vote on the ballot for the hall’s class of 2025.
“I am incredibly grateful to the fans all around the world who supported me during the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan votes,” Sharapova said in a statement. “It is a tremendous honor to be considered for the Hall of Fame, and having the fans’ support makes it all the more special.”
Sharapova became the first Russian woman to reach No. 1 in the world. She won Wimbledon in 2004, the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008. She also won the French Open twice, in 2012 and 2014.
Sharapova was also part of Russia’s championship Fed Cup team in 2008 and won a silver medal at the London Olympics in 2012.
To make the hall, candidates must receive 75% or higher on combined results of the official voting group and additional percentage from the fan vote. Sharapova will have an additional three percentage points from winning the fan vote.
The Bryans, who won 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, will have two additional percentage points and Nestor, who won eight Grand Slam doubles titles, will get one extra percentage point.
The hall’s next class will be announced late next month.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The driver charged with killing NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew as they bicycled on a rural road had a blood-alcohol level of .087, above the .08 legal limit in New Jersey, a prosecutor said Friday.
Gaudreau, 31, and brother Matthew, 29, were killed in Carneys Point, New Jersey, on Aug. 29, the evening before they were set to serve as groomsmen at their sister Katie’s wedding.
The driver, 43-year-old Sean M. Higgins of nearby Woodstown, New Jersey, is charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle. At a virtual court hearing Friday, a judge ordered that he be held for trial after prosecutors described a history of alleged road rage and aggressive driving.
“’You were probably driving like a nut like I always tell you you do. And you don’t listen to me, instead you just yell at me,’” his wife told Higgins when he called her from jail after his arrest, according to First Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Flynn of Salem County.
The defense described Higgins as a married father and law-abiding citizen before the crash.
“He’s an empathetic individual and he’s a loving father of two daughters,” said defense lawyer Matthew Portella. “He’s a good person and he made a horrible decision that night.”
Higgins told police he had five or six beers that day and admitted to consuming alcohol while driving, according to the criminal complaint. He also failed a field sobriety test, the complaint said. A prosecutor on Friday said he had been drinking at home after finishing a work call at about 3 p.m., and having an upsetting conversation with his mother about a family matter.
He then had a two-hour phone call with a friend while he drove around in his Jeep with an open container, Flynn said. He had been driving aggressively behind a sedan going just above the 50 mph speed limit, sometimes tailgating, the female driver told police.
When she and the vehicle ahead of her slowed down and veered left to go around the cyclists, Higgins sped up and veered right, striking the Gaudreas, the two other drivers told police.
“He indicated he didn’t even see them,” said Superior Court Judge Michael J. Silvanio, who said Higgins’ admitted “impatience” caused two deaths.
Higgins faces up to 20 years, a sentence that the judge said made him a flight risk.
Higgins has a master’s degree, works in finance for an addiction treatment company, and served in combat in Iraq, his lawyers said. However, his wife said he had been drinking regularly since working from home, Flynn said.
Johnny Gaudreau, known as “Johnny Hockey,” played 10 full seasons in the league and was set to enter his third with the Columbus Blue Jackets after signing a seven-year, $68 million deal in 2022. He played his first eight seasons with the Calgary Flames, a tenure that included becoming one of the sport’s top players and a fan favorite across North America.
Widows Meredith and Madeline Gaudreau described their husbands as attached at the hip throughout their lives. Both women are expecting, and both gave moving eulogies at the double funeral on Monday.
